Shipyard history, future worth another look
Most notably, the shipyard's location and existing facilities would be ideal for playing a role in the development of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.
In my role as Restoration Advisory Board co-chair for the entire 28-year timeframe of the Superfund toxic waste mitigation at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, I have had the unique opportunity to observe and share my perspective as a layperson and neighbor over the decades. When we began our citizen oversight in 1995, we knew there was a daunting task before the Navy and relevant state and federal agencies, but of course we had no idea how many decades the project would take to complete.
So, on behalf of the surrounding community, I congratulate the Navy and the many personnel involved for all their tremendous work in seeing the project through, and for completing it within our lifetimes. The local environment, and those of us who reside in and depend on it, will greatly benefit from the protection of our water quality and other marine resources from the myriad toxic wastes generated and inadequately disposed of at the shipyard over past decades.
To better understand what an accomplishment this event signifies, it's worth looking back at how we got here – how challenging the toxic waste legacy at the shipyard appeared in the decade prior to its Superfund listing and ensuing remedial actions. Early assessments documented that shipyard workers had been disposing of huge quantities of toxic chemicals and other waste materials as well as contaminated dredge spoils in the now-filled mudflats between Seavey Island proper and Jamaica Island to the east. Liquid wastes were often inadvertently or deliberately released directly into the surrounding water through several outfalls as well as leaking underground tanks.
Not surprisingly, offshore sampling found elevated levels of PCBs and heavy metals in lobsters, shellfish algae and sediments, to the point that warnings against lobster and shellfish consumption were issued by state health officials. Clearly, something had to be done to clean up the mess, as well as ensure that less of it ended up in the harbor in the future.
Yet despite this record, the Navy continued to drag its feet on addressing the problem, to the point of being sued by the state of Maine over current hazardous waste mismanagement as well as resisting having the shipyard included on the Superfund list. It took several years of citizen and political pressure to finally get the designation for the shipyard, and it came almost a decade after the law was amended to require federal facilities to follow the program.
Since the onset of the environmental restoration program at the shipyard, we saw great efforts to measure and monitor on-site and offshore toxic contamination, and many tons of the worst contaminated soil and debris were removed offsite. But careful determination of the volume and cost of waste removal made it increasingly clear that “clean up” of the largest sites on the shipyard became something of a misnomer. The resulting decision to leave the vast majority of the deposited waste onsite means that “waste isolation” from the surrounding environment is the more appropriate term for the chosen remedy at these sites. We can only hope that these sites remain isolated as seas rise and storms become more intense in coming decades.
Even with acceptance of this isolation regime, the environmental community didn't always get what we wanted in remediation efforts – notably, requiring greater effort to isolate landfilled wastes from tidal waters or greater attention to likely future climate disruption impacts. But there were other significant successes along the way, such as restoration of Jamaica Cove to a functioning salt marsh and living buffer between landfill waste and the back channel of Portsmouth Harbor.
This de-listing is a huge accomplishment, but the process doesn't end here. The Navy will need to watch for environmental changes, and maintain land use controls and deed restrictions in perpetuity. And we need to remain vigilant for environmental threats that could affect the future stewardship of this key location in Portsmouth Harbor. Looking beyond Superfund, I urge the Navy to pursue new initiatives to
make the shipyard more sustainable and resilient in the face of unfolding climate disruption, and to play a greater role in the sustainability of the Seacoast region as a whole.
Most notably, the shipyard's location and existing facilities would be ideal for playing a role in the development of offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine. A huge area far offshore in the Gulf has just been designated by federal authorities with the potential to generate most of the power needed throughout New England in coming decades.
And the Navy has an existing program for leasing out less-used support facilities for such enterprises, so a new public-private partnership for sustainability is entirely possible here.
As recent events remind us, our region is particularly vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate disruption, so the time is right for a “all hands on deck” approach to confronting this crisis.
A now-safer Seavey Island and greater recognition of the national security threat of the climate crisis could bring a new and timely mission for our region's proud naval heritage.