USS Oriskany

Beaumont, TX | United States

One of many ships in the U.S. Navy's decommissioned fleet, the USS Oriskany, was a 910 foot U.S. Navy Essex Class aircraft carrier built after World War II and had decorated service in the Korean War and Vietnam War eras. The U.S. Navy’s Inactive Ships Program (PMS-333) chose this vessel as the first of its kind to be disposed of as an artificial reef in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency's Best Management Practices for reefing ships. Resolve Marine, along with a partner company, was chosen as the contractor to conduct the environmental remediation and sink the vessel.

The project was groundbreaking and the first of its kind as a large-scale U.S. Navy funded artificial reef project. Resolve Marine towed the vessel from Beaumont, Texas to a site in the Port of Corpus Christi, Texas to perform the remediation. The remediation project involved over 150 personnel who opened and cleaned all the tanks on the vessel (500+), removed large quantities and varieties of hazardous materials and performed other specific remediation functions including lead paint removal, and PCB removal. Once the base remediation contract was successfully completed, the Navy extended the contract to remove the entire wood flight deck which contained very high PCB levels. The Resolve Marine team was then tasked to tow the carrier to the Port of Pensacola, Florida where final preparations were made to sink the vessel to create an artificial reef.