Aircraft Carrier to become artificial reef

[Cavern Junkie]

Here is an update on the USS Oriskany. Looks like they are now planning to sink her in June of 05.


Oriskany now set to arrive within weeks
Doug Haller
Staff
Pensacola News Journal

Ship will dock at port before becoming reef
Doug Haller

@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

The ship is rusty. It doesn't have a flight deck. It doesn't have much of its bulkhead insulation. But it soon will have a new home.

The decommissioned aircraft carrier Oriskany is set to arrive in Pensacola around Dec. 18, a major step in the process that will send it to the sea floor as an artificial reef. The sinking is to take place in June, 25 miles south of Pensacola Pass.

"Over the past few months, there were several times when my faith was tested, but I tried to keep the faith,'' said Robert Turpin, chief of Escambia County Marine Resources. "I just tried to focus on my role in assisting the technical work and issues so that it could come here.''

Oriskany was scheduled to be scuttled in August, when it was expected to attract divers and anglers from around the globe, pumping millions of dollars into the Northwest Florida economy. But several environmental issues delayed the event, keeping the flattop docked in Corpus Christi, Texas, while the area braced for and recovered from Hurricane Ivan.

Turpin recently toured the ship with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and was pleased with the progress. Workers removed Oriskany's wooden flight deck to reduce an estimated 700 pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls, an industrial compound known to cause cancer in animals.

"I wouldn't say the ship was naked,'' Turpin said. "But (it was without) a lot of what I would call questionable materials that could cause entanglements with diving.''

Oriskany will take temporary residence at the Port of Pensacola, secured next to the Bayfront Auditorium. In the coming months it will undergo final sink preparations while environmental and military officials continue to work on environmental agency disposal permits.

Assistant Port Director Leon Walker said the port is 90 percent recovered from storm damage and should have no problem accommodating the 888-foot ship.

"We're hopeful to get it in and get the work done so we can sink it as soon as possible,'' Walker said.