Contractors have completed the removal of nine tonnes of asbestos and approximately 1.6 million gallons (six million litres) of other toxic waste from a decommissioned US Navy aircraft carrier that has been preserved as a floating museum in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina.
The two-year cleanup on the Essex-class carrier ex-USS Yorktown entailed the removal of oil, contaminated water, and residual fuel from the ship's hull and interior compartments to prevent these from leaking out into the harbour and causing a significant environmental disaster.
The works were carried out in two phases and also involved cleaning and dewatering of the carrier's onboard tanks.
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster said ex-Yorktown, "was a ticking environmental time bomb," because of corrosion but, "has been safely and successfully defused."
The waste removal works were undertaken by virtue of an executive order McMaster issued in 2022 following an assessment of the veteran carrier's condition.
Ex-Yorktown was the second of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built for the US Navy between 1941 and 1950. She was commissioned in April 1943 and saw service in the Pacific in World War II, earning a Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars.
The carrier was decommissioned in 1947 and reactivated and recommissioned in 1953, but the Korean War ended before she could see action in the Far East.
The ship was later converted into an anti-submarine carrier, and it was in this capacity that she deployed operationally during the Vietnam War. This period also saw her being used as a recovery ship in support of NASA's Apollo space program.
Ex-Yorktown was decommissioned from US Navy service for the final time in 1970. She was reopened to the public as a museum ship at the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in South Carolina in early 1976 and has remained there since.
