PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — In accordance with Sept. 12 court-enforced eviction from its pier in South PhiladelphiaThe SS-united states may well be sunk off the Okaloosa County, Fla. coast as part of an artificial reef, CBS News Philadelphia has learned.
County commissioners are expected to take up the matter at a meeting Tuesday afternoon, according to sources, as well as public meeting agendas and information documents.
A spokesperson for the SS United States Conservancy said recently by phone that the organization has been in talks with a handful of Florida counties because of the court’s deadline for the ship to leave Pier 82.
That deadline, sources say, has left the conservancy scrambling to find a temporary or permanent dock after the court declined to allow the historic ocean liner to stay at Pier 82 any longer.
Sources say sinking the vessel, once it has been properly converted and meets strict environmental regulations, is an alternative to scrapping the vessel outright.
The SS United States Conservancy declined to comment further on the matter. Sources warned that a number of contingencies remain unresolved and that sinking the ship is not a “done deal”.
For decades, the ship has loomed over South Philadelphia’s skyline, just north of the Walt Whitman Bridge and towering over a nearby Ikea parking lot.
CBS News Philadelphia
There were big plans for one “remodeled” SS USA. Still, time has run out for the ship after Penn Warehousing, the owner of Pier 82, filed a federal lawsuit seeking a significant rent increase. While the judge denied the raise, a mandatory eviction date was set for the vessel, which is now less than two weeks away.
Moving the vessel is expected to be an intensive process, with coordination between the port, the US Coast Guard and Delaware River tides.
