Tribe, groups sue Navy over Sound ship cleaning

SEATTLE (AP) — The Suquamish Tribe and two environmental groups are suing the U.S. Navy, saying it sent harmful pollutants into Puget Sound when it cleaned a decommissioned aircraft carrier near Bremerton.

The mothballed 60,000-ton USS Independence was cleaned in waters near Bremerton in January and February before it was towed to Brownsville, Texas, this month to be dismantled.

The tribe, Washington Environmental Council and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance allege that the Navy violated clean-water laws by not obtaining a permit when it scraped the ship’s hull and underwater components and sent pollution into the water.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Tacoma.

While the decommissioned Independence is no longer at Naval Base Kitsap, other mothballed Navy ships remain, the groups said.

Navy spokeswoman Colleen O’Rourke previously said that skilled divers gently scrubbed marine growth on the hull of the ship to prevent the possible transfer of invasive species.

The Suquamish Tribe estimates that between 49 to 73 dump truck loads of debris such as paint chips, copper, zinc and other metals from the former USS Independence went directly into Sinclair Inlet, a waterway already suffering from water quality problems.