On Wednesday, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland will sink a battleship.The USS Arthur Radford, a Navy destroyer which was deployed to South America and the Mideast in the course of its 26-year career, will become the largest building block for an artificial reef on the East Coast.

Built in 1977 at 536 feet—almost two blocks long—it was part of fleet of 31 Spruance-class destroyers, designed to accommodate Tomahawk missiles and 5-inch artillery. All but one of those destroyers have been scrapped or destroyed for training exercises.

At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, the Arthur Radford was stripped of everything valuable or toxic. Before it arrived to that final port, it was demilitarized.

"No 5-inch shells, no phosphorous, no hand grenades, no Sparrow missile systems," said Patrick Pawliczek, co-owner of American Marine Group, which was hired to prepare the ship for sinking. "Everybody asks that."

Pawliczek says his company stripped away 1,000 tons of recyclable material, and put concrete in the hull as ballast weight. That will keep the skeleton of the vessel steady in the water as it's towed to the sink site.

AMG foreman Cody Spadaccino has been working on the Arthur Radford for 14 months of hospice.

Calm, quiet dispatch

"It is going to be sunk the all-natural way. No explosives. We're actually going to flood the ship," said Spadaccino "Strap her down real nice, slow, and easy. Not blowing her up. It's going to go down nice, peacefully. Nice and quiet, in a beautiful, beautiful manner."

The afterlife of the Arthur Radford will be as a recreation destination. Resting 130 feet below the water, in the mouth of the Delaware Bay about 22 miles from Cape May, the destroyer will first attract mussels and barnacles ... then black sea bass and tautog fish. The sea life will in turn attract recreational fishing and scuba diving.

That's the point; the states of Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland split the million-dollar cost of the sinking the ship—with some federal help—with hopes to get a return on investment through tourism dollars.

For years the Delaware Bay has been accepting all manner of junk—from old subway cars to armored military vehicles to commercial fishing boats—to create the Red Bird Reef. As a result, fishing trips have increased from 300 annually to approximately 17,000.

But some environmentalists are concerned about toxic contaminants.

"The way these vessels were constructed in the '70s, a lot of toxic material was included," said Colby Self, of the Seattle-based group Basel Action Network. "There are construction materials embedded deep in the bulkhead. It's difficult to get all the material."

The first military ship used for an artificial reef was a whopper—the USS Oriskany is a 900-foot-long aircraft carrier sent to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola, Florida in 2006.
In spite of housing an estimated 700 pounds of toxic PCBs, the Oriskany is considered one of the best dive sites in the world.

Clean bill of health

Tim Mullane, the other owner of American Marine Group, says the Arthur Radford is much cleaner.

"It didn't carry heavy fuels or oils, which are harder to clean," said Mullane, whose company ripped out all the wiring, insulation, and piping that might hide contaminants. "The tanks were painted white—beautiful condition. No lead paint, no asbestos—contaminant-wise, it was a good choice. You know you're putting down a good product."

The USS Arthur Radford is the latest—and largest—addition to the Del-Jersey-Land Inshore artificial reef, named for being equidistant from Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland.