National Guidance: Best Management Practices
                    for Preparing Vessels Intended to Create
                    Artificial Reefs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is issuing national guidance on environmental
best management practices for preparing vessels for use as artificial reefs.  The first of its kind, this
guidance offers a consistent, national approach for preparing obsolete and decommissioned
military and commercial vessels for use as artificial reefs.
Background
Section 3516 of the National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004
requires that EPA and the Maritime
Administration (MARAD) jointly develop
guidance recommending environmental best
management practices (BMPs) to be used in
the preparation of vessels for use as artificial
reefs.

Options for managing obsolete and
decommissioned military and commercial
vessels include re-use of the vessel or parts of
the vessel, recycling or scrapping, creating
artificial reefs, and disposal on land or at sea.
This document discusses the clean-up and
preparation of such vessels when sinking
obsolete vessels to create artificial reefs.

An interagency workgroup, chaired by EPA's
Office of Water, was established to develop
the guidance. The workgroup included
representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard,
U.S. Navy, MARAD, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. This final guidance document
addresses the public comments received on
the Draft National Guidance: Best
Management Practices for Preparing Vessels
Intended to Create Artificial Reefs (69 FR
46141), as well as lessons learned from the
Navy's ex-USS Oriskany vessel-to-reef
project.
Summary of Guidance
The BMP guidance identifies materials or
categories of materials of concern that may be
present aboard vessels, identifies where these
materials may be found, and describes their
potential adverse impacts if released into the
marine environment.  The materials of
concern include: fuels and oil, asbestos,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), paints,
debris (e.g., vessel debris, floatables, and
introduced material), and other materials (e.g.,
mercury, refrigerants). For each material or
category of material of concern identified, this
document provides a general clean-up
performance goal and information on methods
for addressing those goals.

The purpose of creating an artificial reef is to
benefit the environment by enhancing aquatic
habitat and marine resources, as well as
providing an option for conserving, managing,
and for developing fisheries resources.

EPA believes that achieving the clean-up
performance goals provided in this document,
if complemented with strategic reef site
selection, will maximize the opportunity for
these vessels to benefit the environment as
artificial reefs.

Further Information
For additional information call Laura S.
Johnson at (202) 566-1273; or send an e-mail
tojohnson.laura-s@epa.gov. You can view or
download the guidance at
http://www.epa.gov/owow/oceans/habitat/artif
icialreefs/index.html.
                                               EPA842-F-06-003, Office of Water 4504T, April, 2006

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