UK Environment Agency Calls for National Policy on Ship Scrapping

The Environment Agency of the United Kingdom called for a national policy on ship recycling and on applying environmental standards to all facilities involved in the recovery of decommissioned ships.

The agency is charged protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales.

This came as the Environment Agency published its review of the transfer of four U.S. navy ships to Teesside, in the United Kingdom, for recycling. The ships are currently stored in a dockyard by Able UK Ltd., pending the outcome of decisions on applications for permissions to dismantle them.

"There is a pressing need for a clear policy to ensure the environmentally sound dismantling of decommissioned ships," said Barbara Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency.

The Environment Agency believes that there are also important lessons to be learnt from the experience of dealing with the ships for the Agency, for other regulators and for government departments. The review concluded that:

The responsibility for getting all the relevant permissions must remain with the applicant, however the Environment Agency would improve its guidance to applicants and actively support collective discussions between the applicant and other regulators before the application is submitted. It would emphasize to applicants that permissions granted by the Environment Agency do not confirm the existence of all relevant permissions from other regulators.

DEFRA, English Nature and the Environment Agency should ensure more effective coordination of environmental impact assessments under the Habitats regulations.

The Environment Agency needs to enhance its ability to recognize novel and potentially contentious issues and thus to be able communicate publicly the true nature of environmental risks and associated regulatory controls in a timely fashion.

The Government position on the issues raised by this incident needs to be clarified to establish:

A national policy on ship recycling including imports and exports and whether minimum environmental standards should be applied to all facilities involved in recovering UK flagged vessels.

If there is support for a UK ship recycling business sector.

Whether the Government should promote an international agreement on ship scrapping and recovery facilities.

The Environment Agency has put in place controls to ensure the vessels are safely stored and these will remain in force until Able UK obtains the relevant permissions for dismantling or has to move them to another facility. The results of environmental monitoring indicate that storage of the four US naval ships at the Graythorp dock has not had a detrimental impact or posed a significant threat to the environment or human health.

The Agency emphasized that about 95 percent of the material in the ships for dismantling can be recovered and recycled, there are environmental benefits to be gained from this type of dismantling so long as it is properly regulated. The small residual quantity of hazardous components can be safely disposed of in licensed facilities.

The Agency has also concluded that dismantling the four US navy ships in Able UK’s Graythorp dock could represent the best environmental option, if the company obtains the necessary permissions for environmentally sound recovery.

The Agency also confirmed that it does not intend at present to take any enforcement action against Able UK, which is required to have dismantled the ships within 180 days of their arrival.

Commenting on the situation Craig McGarvey, the Agency’s Area Manager said: "The current position is that the ships are stored safely and Able UK is working with the various authorities to apply for permission to dismantle the ships. In light of this we have concluded that it would not be sensible to take enforcement action while Able is attempting to rectify the situation. If circumstances change we will review our enforcement position."

If Able UK did gain permission to dismantle the four ships it would not automatically mean that it could take any other decommissioned ships from the US.