Asbestos, Seawitch ship and insulation

Here is some information on asbestos and Seawitch ship insulation. The ship scrapyard has a troubled past, which was described in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series in The Baltimore Sun in 1997.

Seawitch Salvage purchased the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, the minesweeper USS Illusive and several other decommissioned ships with plans to scrap them and sell their parts at a profit. The company hauled the ships to piers north of Frankfurst Avenue, long used for ship manufacturing.

Asbestos Insulation

Seawitch, controlled by Kerry L. Ellis Sr., allowed workers to rip asbestos insulation out of the ships with their bare hands, often wearing no protective masks, according to testimony in the 1997 trial.

Ellis’ company also dumped oil, debris and other pollutants into the harbor. The Pasadena businessman received a two-year sentence in February 1998 and died after suffering a heart attack in prison.

The Maryland Port Administration, which later bought the land, found high levels of mercury and other metals, dioxins and PCBs in the soil beneath the scrapyard, according to state officials.

The port agency has been working with the Maryland Department of the Environment to remove and bury contaminants, but the cleanup hasn't been easy. In May 2004, workers stumbled across a dozen World War II-era bombs.

Emergency response teams shut down Interstate 895 and restricted water access to the Inner Harbor before discovering that the bombs were filled with concrete -- duds used for target practice.

Workers later dug up a tank of anhydrous ammonia, a hazardous substance that started leaking when the backhoe's teeth ripped through its metal. No one was injured.

The state Board of Public Works approved a wetlands permit Aug. 23 to allow the project to move ahead. Among the ships the Port Administration is dragging away are a steam-powered dredging barge called the Jacob Pilsch and a 150-foot long passenger ferry.

"That site has such an environmental history to it, I am pleased the state is stepping in and making these improvements," said state Sen. George W. Della Jr., who represents the district. The shipbreakers "were horrible in the manner in which they dismantled ships down there."