Opinion: What Okaloosa County Says — And What You Need to Know

By Carlos Camacho Jr.

Before Okaloosa County sinks a piece of America’s soul, here’s what they’re not telling you.

Okaloosa County officials are moving to sink the National Register-listed SS United States — the fastest ocean liner ever built, the symbolic flagship of the U.S. Merchant Marine, and one of the most historically significant ships in American history — as an artificial reef in the Gulf of America. They say everything is in order. They say it’s safe. They say there’s no alternative.

None of that is true.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The public supports this project.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: At the April 21 commission meeting, a 19-year-old University of West Florida student from Okaloosa County, Ryan Dunphy, stood at the podium and said the project “appalled” him, describing the plan as “naïve, ill-thought-out, incompetent, and, at worst, negligent,” and warning that sinking the ship would “pass down dirty, unsafe water to my generation and the next.” His testimony wasn’t political. It was the voice of a young Okaloosa County resident demanding honesty from his elected officials.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The contamination concerns are overblown.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Erin Brockovich — the consumer protection advocate who took on Pacific Gas & Electric over hexavalent chromium contamination and won — called out the SS United States by name as a serious public health concern. “Clean your ship up before you sink her,” Brockovich wrote in a February 18 Facebook post, “or be stupid, do it, harm thousands, and spend hundreds of millions cleaning up your crap for the next twenty years.” That same toxin — the one she made famous — is chemically bonded to the ship’s steel and aluminum surfaces in the form of zinc chromate primer: an estimated 59,334 pounds of it at 4,520 mg/kg, confirmed by two independent EPA-certified laboratory results. This is not a loose coating that can simply be scraped away. It is a Cold War-era formulation now heavily restricted due to its toxicity, and it remains chemically bonded to the ship’s underlying materials in ways that are not addressed by superficial removal methods. Dr. Todd Osborne of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience has warned that sinking this vessel risks creating a Superfund site in the Gulf of America.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The paint has been removed. The ship is clean.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: At that same April 21 meeting, Commissioner Sherri Cox — who has an undergraduate degree in chemistry — told concerned residents the contamination was “not going to be an issue,” while in the same breath acknowledging the paint “has been removed also.” Removing peeling or accessible paint does not address the substantial quantities of hexavalent chromium that remain embedded across interior and exterior surfaces. In remediation science, disturbing zinc chromate coatings is precisely when hexavalent chromium hazard increases, not decreases. “Not going to be an issue” is not an EPA standard. It is not a TSCA standard. It is a commissioner’s opinion.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: All required federal reviews are complete.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: They are not — and the reason those reviews exist matters. The SS United States was built with Navy funding, designed to carry an entire Army division to war, and constructed by workers from 48 states. Okaloosa County may hold the title, but she belongs to all of us — which is exactly why federal law requires a full Section 106 review under the National Historic Preservation Act before any government entity can destroy a property on the National Register of Historic Places. 

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: The permits cover this project.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Section 106 Memorandum of Agreement proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the sinking is in draft form and will not be finalized until all relevant parties sign it. Even then, federal review continues. The Corps permit the county is relying on — SAJ-1996-03565 — predates the ship’s acquisition, never names the SS United States, and was written for clean, inert materials. No NEPA environmental review has been completed. No ocean dumping permit has been obtained. The county has decided it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. That’s not how you treat something the Greatest Generation built with their own hands.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: Divers will love it.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The proposed site is 180 feet deep and 20 miles offshore. Commissioner Paul Mixon has publicly acknowledged there is no hyperbaric chamber within survivability range. Every diving emergency at that depth becomes a U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue responsibility — a federal burden created by a county decision. To put that in perspective: fewer than one percent of recreational divers are even certified to dive that deep. The ship the county calls a “tourism asset” will be inaccessible to virtually everyone.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: There is no other option.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: There is a fully developed alternative already on the table. Operation Liberty Shift — a federal substitution framework submitted to congressional and federal authorities by the SS United States Preservation Foundation — identifies eight SL-7 Fast Sealift Ships currently in federal control and scheduled for decommissioning. These vessels are all-steel, environmentally cleaner, nearly the same size as the SS United States, and already government property. Okaloosa County could still get its world’s largest artificial reef. The nation would keep its historic ship. The Foundation has also submitted a draft America 250 Maritime Heritage Act to Congress and a draft Executive Order to the White House, both providing lawful federal pathways to preserve the vessel as a National Maritime Monument. The county has been informed of these alternatives. They’ve ignored them.

WHAT THE COUNTY SAYS: This is good for Okaloosa County.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: Okaloosa County is home to Eglin Air Force Base. It sits inside a congressional district that prides itself on patriotism, military service, and American heritage. The SS United States is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She is the only vessel in American history to bear the name UNITED STATES across her bow — no prefix, no suffix, the nation’s name exactly as it appears. Sinking her in the Gulf of America — during America’s 250th anniversary year, while the nation is at war — is not a tourism win. It is a symbol. And not a good one.

This is a generational decision. Preserve the SS United States, and our children and grandchildren will one day stand on her decks and understand what America was capable of building. Sink her without honesty or accountability, and she becomes something else entirely — a perpetual, toxic reminder that our generation disgraced its heritage and poisoned its waters for the sake of a tourism promotion.

The window to act is closing.

There is a lawful path forward that gives Okaloosa County everything it says it wants — a massive artificial reef, a tourism draw, a world record — without destroying an irreplaceable piece of American history or creating an environmental crisis in the Gulf of America. Federal authorities have that path in hand right now.

The question is whether five county commissioners will choose to use it before it’s too late.

Carlos Camacho Jr. is co-founder and chief communications officer of the SS United States Preservation Foundation, Inc., a Florida nonprofit corporation and a federally recognized Section 106 Consulting Party to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army Permit SAJ-1996-03565.