A contractor working for the U.S. Coast Guard has finished removing the oil-soaked hull of a wooden minesweeper from Little Potato Slough, completing the last large vessel removal of the cleanup for the wreck-ridden waterway near Stockton, California.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has long been a catch basin for derelict vessels, some larger than others. For decades, the Suisun Bay area of the Sacramento River was home to dozens of decaying government ships maintained by MARAD, almost all of which have been towed off to the scrapyard to resolve an environmental lawsuit. But many more private vessels litter the narrow waterways upriver, and Little Potato Slough – a meandering waterway on the outskirts of Stockton – has become notorious for its wrecks.
The Coast Guard has been working on a large-scale cleanup operation to remove some of the most hazardous wrecks from Little Potato Slough, financed by the Oil Pollution Liability Trust Fund. Among other targets, it picked the HMCS Chaleur, a 140-foot wooden-hulled minesweeper that served in the Royal Canadian Navy from the 1950s up to the late 1990s.
Like many derelicts, Chaleur was resold multiple times after entering private ownership. It was moored at a private marina, which eventually closed its doors, allowing three vessels to deteriorate and sink at the dock. The Coast Guard has already removed two of the three, leaving Chaleur for last.
Salvors dismantle Chaleur’s deckhouse (Images courtesy USCG Sector San Francisco)
Under Coast Guard supervision, California-based contractor Power Engineering Construction mobilized a crane barge and a dive team to the site in July and began dismantling Chaleur in place. Divers cut up the wreck below the surface, sectioning it into chunks that could be hoisted out by crane. The process is now completed, and the oil-sodden wood is out of the water. The Coast Guard also plans to dismantle and remove the remains of the marina as well, according to local outlet KCRA.
After the dismantling of Chaleur, along with the disposal of WWII Navy yard tug Mazapeta and the former cruise ship Aurora last year, Little Potato Slough is finally clear of large wrecks. But the work in the broader region is far from done.
“There are dozens more wrecks throughout the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta,” incident commander Lt. Cmdr. Mark Leahey told Stocktonia. “This one just happened to threaten water, wildlife, and people all at once.”