USS Yorktown Clean-Up Completed – 1.6 Million Gallons of Toxic Waste Removed
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Henry McMaster today was joined by the South Carolina Office of Resilience (SCOR) to announce the completion of the USS Yorktown Environmental Remediation Project. The project, which is a result of Governor McMaster’s 2022 Executive Order, successfully removed more than 1.6 million gallons of hazardous materials and over nine tons of asbestos from the ship. The pollutants were at increasing risk of leaking into Charleston Harbor due to the continued corrosion of the Yorktown’s outer hull, posing a major environmental and economic threat to the Lowcountry.
“The USS Yorktown was a ticking environmental time bomb, with the risk of disaster increasing each year, and now it has been safely and successfully defused,” said Governor Henry McMaster. “Had these materials leaked, they would have caused catastrophic damage to Charleston Harbor, destroying marshes and estuaries, killing marine life, and threatening industries that support thousands of jobs across the Lowcountry. Instead, we took action to prevent that disaster and protect South Carolina.”
Commissioned in 1943, the Yorktown is an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was converted to an attack aircraft carrier in the 1950s, then to an anti-submarine aircraft carrier in 1957. After being decommissioned in 1970, it was donated to the Patriots Point Development Authority and relocated to the Charleston Harbor in 1975. When the Yorktown was decommissioned, the US Navy did not have strict decommissioning procedures and made the ship available to South Carolina “as is” and “without warranty.” This included the presence of hazardous materials on board when the ship was relocated…