Wednesday August 6, 2025
CapRadio —
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s waterways span over a thousand miles.
The region serves as a critical source of water for California, a transportation corridor linking ports in Sacramento and Stockton with the Bay Area, and a habitat for hundreds of wildlife species.
But these rivers, streams and sloughs also conceal a man-made danger which poses significant environmental and navigational threats.
Dozens of abandoned vessels — ranging from small speedboats and pleasure craft, to barges and cruise ships — litter the Delta, some of which have sat derelict for decades.
The California State Lands Commission
Tackling the removal of abandoned ships on public land falls to the California State Lands Commission. Formed in 1938, the agency manages 4 million acres across California, largely tidal and submerged lands and the beds of rivers, lakes, estuaries and other waterways.
Sheri Pemberton is the Commission’s Chief of External Affairs and Legislative Liaison. She told Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez its duties range from safeguarding public access rights to waterways and stopping the spread of invasive species, to oil spill prevention and resolving boundaries between public and private lands.
“Our core mission and purpose is to protect the public lands and waterways,” she explained. “The environmental damage, the navigational hazards and other public safety issues that result from those abandoned vessels are issues that fall directly under and within the commission’s mission.”
When asked why so many ships are left to rot away on state waterways, Pemberton said the motivations can be complicated.
“Sometimes it is as simple as just a financial issue… not having the means to responsibly dispose of a vessel,” she said. “Sometimes a vessel owner passes away, sometimes someone might be on their vessel and it’s languishing, and they just decide to jump ship and leave it there.”
Hidden dangers
Pemberton said abandoned vessels have been a statewide problem for decades, with some cropping up in the Oakland-Alameda estuary, and as far south as San Diego. But a particular hotspot is in the Delta.
“It’s so vast, there’s a lot of sloughs and lots of little areas where it’s relatively easy for someone to dispose of vessels without being seen,” Pemberton said, adding that a recent survey of the Delta region identified around 100 abandoned commercial vessels.
The remains of these vessels can pose multiple hazards. “It’s hard to quantify those effects to the environment, to public safety, to navigation,” Pemberton said, calling the threats “incalculable.”
She explained that despite the Commission’s efforts to document derelict ships, “[t]here may be other vessels that are sunk, that have fuel, that we don’t know about,” Pemberton said.
The State Land Commission’s 2019 Abandoned Commercial Vessel Removal Plan notes that these ships can break free from their moorings, “and drift uncontrolled into navigation channels.” Derelict vessels also risk leaching hazardous wastes into the environment or introducing non-native species, “and they can become attractive nuisances or locations for illegal activities.”
“When you swirl all that together, to a small community it’s a pretty significant impact,” Pemberton said.
A Delta “dumping ground”
One part of the Delta that has attracted significant attention over the past year has been the Little Potato Slough, near the city of Stockton.
“This was kind of a dumping ground where several large vessels, including some ex-military vessels were stored for a while,” Andrew Kershen, an attorney for the State Lands Commission told Insight’s Vicki Gonzalez.
“They were neglected and not taken care of properly, and then have caused a really significant environmental catastrophe down there,” Kershen said.
One high-profile incident involved the 1950s-era cruise ship Aurora, which sank in the slough last May. The ship leaked diesel fuel, engine oil and other pollutants, and posed an environmental risk to the city as it sank less than a mile from Stockton’s main water intake. City officials shut the intake down to avoid contamination.
“That’s a pretty astounding impact,” Kershen said, adding that the Aurora was, “the largest derelict commercial vessel that we’re aware of in the Delta.”
The cruise ship was eventually refloated and cleanup crews removed over 21,000 gallons of oily water, 3,100 gallons of hazardous waste and five 25-yard bins of debris. The Aurora was towed to Vallejo in December for disposal, and on July 15 the Stockton City Council approved an $8 million payment to cover costs related to its removal.
Another major project in the area is the former Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper Chaleur. Kershen said the ship was moored directly next to the Aurora and is being removed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Built in the 1950s, the Chaleur sank in the slough in 2019.
In mid-July, Central Valley Congressman Josh Harder called for “expedited action” around the Chaleur, which he called a “toxic time bomb.” Harder said the ship has leaked over 2,500 gallons of fuel into the Delta, a problem exacerbated by hot weather.
Last year, Harder also called on then-Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan to fast-track funding for the ship’s removal, which was approved. This includes a trust fund to cover destruction and removal costs, special equipment to contain pollution, and the Coast Guard’s help to cut the Chaleur apart.
Additionally, in April Harder introduced legislation to hold commercial vessel owners accountable for polluting the Delta, citing the Aurora disaster. The Abandoned Vessel Prevention Act would require sellers of ships over 35 feet long and 40 years old to have insurance, or remain liable for any sinking or cleanup costs.
Pemberton welcomed the bill, noting an overall lack of state or federal legislation aimed at tackling the abandoned vessels issue. “Every little bit helps,” she said.
Ensuring proper disposal
Kershen said it is an owner’s responsibility to dispose of their boat properly, whether it is a small fishing ship or a cargo barge. “It’s illegal to abandon a boat, you shouldn’t do that,” he said.
But the disposal process can vary significantly depending on the vessel, and can be costly. Kershen said smaller personal watercraft can be trailered to a landfill or voluntarily given up through California’s Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange (SAVE) program.
But larger commercial vessels, which are the Commission’s priority for removal, pose significantly more challenges. “They’re built for heavy-duty use, they’re very heavy [and] large pieces of equipment,” Kershen said.
“They’re often full of oil, petroleum, hazardous substances like asbestos and lead paint… all of that has to be removed first before you can dispose of the solid waste that’s left.”
He said removing those hazards requires specialized equipment like dry docks, which lift a ship out of the water to be worked on. But these facilities are in short supply, which significantly drives up disposal costs.
“There are remaining dry docks at Mare Island in Vallejo, those are former Navy facilities that are now operated by private companies,” Kershen said. “I believe there’s an operational dry dock in San Diego, but other than that these facilities don’t exist in California.”
Challenges to successful removal
In addition to the lack of dry docks, the State Lands Commission faces other headwinds. Cleanup operations usually involve local, state and federal agencies, which can make navigating jurisdictions tricky.
“No agency is given both the authority and the resources to lead,” Kershen said. “Because it’s nobody’s particular problem, it becomes everybody’s problem.”
Pemberton also pointed to a limited amount of funding available for identifying or removing abandoned ships, especially in the long term.
While civil or criminal penalties can be issued to vessel owners, Kershen said the Commission has seen only limited success in recovering costs. “They may have died, we may just have no idea who owns the vessel… and in some cases when we are able to locate a person, they have very limited means,” he explained.
Despite these challenges, the State Lands Commission has continued to notch successes. In June the agency celebrated what it called the “largest single-site commercial abandoned vessel abatement and site restoration action” in its history.
The project focused on the Skarry Site in the Delta’s Sevenmile Slough, near Rio Vista and Isleton. Officials removed two large barges and refloated a third, and cleaned up almost a thousand tons of debris and 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel.
Pemberton said the Commission has around 10 more vessels slated for disposal in the Delta over the next 6-12 months. She also said its mission to clear California’s waterways and create a long-term vessel removal program remain unchanged.
“There isn’t another state agency with that authority,” Pemberton concluded.