“We don’t have another minute to waste” Work to remove toxic liquid from USS Yorktown underway in SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)- Governor Henry McMaster was in Mount Pleasant Tuesday morning, touring the USS Yorktown and providing an update on the efforts to remove toxic liquids inside the ship.

The historic battleship from WWII is in need of some major work.

“This is a sample of materials that have been taken from the bilge and the tanks of the fighting lady, the USS Yorktown,” Robert Boyles, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Director said.

The jars are a tiny portion of the 1.25 million gallons of oil and contaminated water that sits under the deck of the Yorktown, and it’s just a matter of time until it causes an oil spill in the Charleston harbor.

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“The impact of these pollutants are known, and they’re sometimes very, very longlasting,” Boyles said.

However, state and local leaders are doing everything they can to stop that from happening, and we got to see how they’re doing that.

We went below the deck of the historic ship and got an up-close look as experts showed us the tanks with toxic liquids that were being cleaned.

“There are different types of pumps that will just suck it out,” one expert said.

The cleaning process started in 2013 but picked up speed in 2022. So far, 600,000 gallons have been removed, but there’s a lot more left to do.

Governor McMaster met with the project’s leaders on Tuesday morning. The project is about to move into phase two in August.

“We don’t have another minute to waste because we don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know when the next storm is going to happen, we don’t know what might happen,” McMaster said.

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Governor McMaster says it’s vital to get this done quickly to prevent the contamination of our waters.

“We just can’t let that happen. We’re determined that this is going to be finished and finished on time,” McMaster said.

This is a massive project, but officials say they’re hoping to have it done in the next couple of years.

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