Oceans
April 1995
Story by: JOC Martin Fucio and SN M. Taylor Clark
Photos by: JOC Fucio
Something's cooking aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and its not in the galley! On Roosevelt's last deployment, the crew developed a cookbook of environmental recipes title The Environmental Compliance Program Cookbook to help other ships comply with local, state, federal and international environmental rules.
"We called it a cookbook because the Navy puts out enough reports and manuals," said CDR Stu Paul, editor of the cookbook and a former aircraft maintenance officer aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Paul and LTJG Mike Gallop, who literally wrote the book on trash and hazmat handling while serving aboard Roosevelt, wanted a user-friendly approach to sharing lessons learned. As Roosevelt and Air Wing 8 tried ideas that worked, Gallop and Paul wrote a step-by-step explanation of how to replicate the 28 ideas aboard other ships or shore activities. The results read like a cookbook - with the instructions resembling recipes.
Theodore Roosevelt sailors developed many of the ideas themselves, but others were adapted from other places in the Navy - for example the Consolidated Hazardous Material Control Management Program (CHRIMP) uses NAWC Point Mugu's Hazardous Inventory Control System (HICS). CHRIMP establishes one central location as a hazardous materials minimization (HZAMIN) center for the issue and return of hazardous materials such as greases, brake fluids, anticorrosives and about 250 other commonly used items.
If a Sailor needs a quart of paint, he or she goes to the HAZMIN center, fills out a short form and receives a numbered paint can. An easy-to-use HICS computer program tracks the can, which must be returned within 48 hours. When the can is returned, it's stored for reissue if it still has paint in it, or is properly disposed of if empty. This eliminates the half-empty cans of paint stored on shelves here and there throughout the ship which might have created a fire hazard. CHRIMP is also user-friendly.
"We tried to make it simple," said Gallop. "When a system is easy to use, people are more likely to use it.
Another great idea Theodore Roosevelt Sailors used to save the earth (and taxpayers' dollars) was purchasing reusable rags. Shipboard housekeeping consumes a huge numbers of rags, which are normally used once and then discarded. By processing used rags in a specially developed rag-oil separator to remove most of the oil and grease, washing them in a commercial washer and reusing them, Theodore Roosevelt reduced the number of rags used during a six-month deployment from 2,800 bales to 1,600 bales for a purchase savings of $58,735. They realized further savings of $78 per barrel for disposal of the rags as hazardous waste. And, of course, the rags didn't find their way to a landfill.
Altering PMS oil change intervals for aviation support equipment, laser particle counters in lieu of patch testing for hydraulic fluids and many other good ideas are highlights among the recipes in the book. The cookbook has helped spawn an official "Pollution Prevention Opportunities Handbook" being printed and distributed to all commands this spring. Look for it as a great place to think up some ideas you can use aboard your ship or station.
LTJG Mike McDowell, Gallop's successor as environmental compliance officer, and the rest of Roosevelt's crew continue searching for simple solutions. An important lesson is - write down your good ideas, so others can find out about them.
[See document source for photo. Caption: AS2 Phillip Hardy uses the aerosol can puncturing device, which collects residual waste for proper disposal. After puncturing, aerosol cans are flattened for easier disposal.]
The Navy will invest more than $1.5 billion on environmental programs in FY96.
[See document source for graphic.]
To obtain a copy of USS Theodore Roosevelt's cookbook, write:
Commanding Officer
AIMD/1M-1/EC Cookbook
USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71)
FPO AE 09599-2871
You can also get a copy of the cookbook (text only) on the NAVSAFECEN BBS, (DSN) 564 7927 or (804) 444-7927
USS Theodore Roosevelt has sent more than 300 copies of the cookbook to commands throughout the Navy, continuing the work begun by the ship's namesake.
"President Theodore Roosevelt was one of this great nation's first environmentalists," said CAPT Stanley Bryant, USS Theodore Roosevelt's former commanding officer in the intro to the cookbook. "We hope we are following in his footsteps."
[See document source for photo. Caption: AE1 David McCarty, removes rags from the commercially available washer and dryer aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).]
Fucio and Clark are assigned to the public affairs office, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71).
Story by: JO1 Lee Bosco
Photos by: PH2 Troy Hoagland
It's been a seagoing habit for thousands of years. Ancient mariners did it. The Vikings did it, even the Spanish Armada did it. But the U.S. Navy is doing something about dumping trash and garbage at sea.
For centuries, thousands of pounds of garbage were dumped into the planet's oceans with little thought given to the damaging consequences. A newfound wisdom, coupled with some common sense, has prompted the world, and the Navy, to take a closer look at the age-old practice of tossing trash over the fantail.
USS George Washington (CVN 73) took a major step toward an environment-friendly solution when it was selected as the operational test site for the Compressed Melt Unit (CMU) plastic waste processor.
After 21 months of intensive development, NAVSEA approved the production of the plastics processors, which compress shipboard-generated plastic waste into 20-inch disks.
George Washington is complying with the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act enacted by Congress in 1987. The act prohibits the overboard discharge of shipboard plastic waste.
Navy surface ships are required to complying with this act by Dec. 31, 1998. Through a massive effort, the Navy will have plastics waste processors installed aboard all surface ships by that date.
Doug Vaughter, an engineer, and technician Mike Murnane, two members of a five-man team from the Carderock Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (CDNSWC), Annapolis, MD., embarked George Washington, preparing the ship for the arrival of the first CMU plastic processor in the fleet.
[See document source for photo. Caption: Airman Tian Chen (left) and Airman Brian Detrich (second from right) get a first hand look at the future of shipboard plastic disposal. Civilian technicians Doug Vaughter and Mike Murnane hold a plastic disk produce by a Compressed Melt Unit plastic processor installed on board USS George Washington.]
The CMU plastic processor is revolutionary in its design because of its simplicity. The CMU heats the plastics to the melting point while compressing them into a smaller volume. Any water contained in the plastics is cooked off. The temperature of the melted plastics is high enough that most odor-causing bacteria are eliminated. When cooled under pressure, the plastics waste form a dense disk, slightly smaller than a manhole cover.
"The volume reduction ratio is 30-to-1," said Vaughters. "That means five to six large garbage bags make one disk. Without these plastics processors, most ships would have to stow those garbage bags and that takes a lot of space not to mention the sanitary conditions of the area where they are stowed ... and the smell," added Murnane."The CMU is going to make Sailors' jobs easier, living conditions better and keep damaging plastic out of the environment," he said. "We're looking at ways to recycle the plastic disks, so in the long run the Navy may even make money selling the disks."
GW also has pulpers that grind a combination of all paper and food products and sea water to make a fine slurry (garbage mixture). The result is a 98 percent liquid solution which is returned to the sea at a rate of 180 gallons per minute. The slurry disburses and degrades much quicker than the paper an food would have had they gone over the side in their original form.
Plastic, paper and food aren't the only solid wastes George Washington generates. At sea, the ship is home to almost 6,000 crew members who seem able to generate more trash than party-goers on New Year's Eve in Times Square. Sailors go through metal cans and bottles at such a rapid pace that the Navy, early on, realized it needed a separate system to cope with the denser waste.
The glass/metal shredder is an acceptable solution to storing this solid waste. The shredder breaks up cans and bottles so, when put in a container, they take p much less space.
George Washington's future plans call for collecting, washing and shredding all aluminum cans. The aluminum will be held on station until the ship returns to port. Then the waste will be turned over to a recycling plant. This could be a very profitable venture, in addition to being environmentally sound.
With additions like these, the words, "Dump all trash clear of the stern" will someday be reserved for sea stories and changes about those who sailed before.
Bosco and Hoagland are both assigned to USS George Washington (CVN 73) public affairs office.
[See document source for photo. Caption: USS George Washington's BM2 Thomas Whitesell shows the result of the ship's glass and metal waste shredder. The shredder reduces waste volume by a 2:1 ratio, allowing more material to be held on station in limited shipboard space.]
[See document source for photo. Caption: BT1 Michael Taylor of Jacksonville, Fla., navigates the aisles at Naval Station Norfolk's HAZMIN Center. Taylor will retrieve hazardous materials with a specially designed order picker.]
Last Updated: April 7, 1997