'Ghost ships' still heading for Britain

US maritime authorities are insisting that two ancient and heavily polluted US Navy vessels will continue heading for British waters, despite permission having been withdrawn for them to be scrapped at a Hartlepool shipyard.

The Canisteo and Caloosahatchie - both Second World War-era Navy cargo carriers - were the first of 13 ships from the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia due to be dismantled in Britain under a $16m (£10m) deal between the British company Able UK and the US Maritime Administration (Marad).

But on Friday, the Environment Agency reversed an earlier decision, saying that the required waste disposal licence was now invalid, and that other necessary permits had yet to be obtained. The ruling is a big victory for environmental groups in both Britain and the US, which have contended that the 4,500-mile journey under tow of the vessels, contaminated with asbestos, PCBs and fuel oil, posed a major pollution threat.

Later Marad said it was "aware" of the issues raised, but the ships were still sailing towards Britain. "As we work toward a resolution of these issues between the UK Environment Agency and Able UK, the ships will continue to transit the Atlantic," said the agency.

According to Earthjustice, the environmental law group leading the campaign in the US, the 13 so-called "ghost ships" contain 350 tons of carcinogenic PCBs, 620 tons of asbestos and 470 tons of old fuel oil. Not only could the dismantling work be carried out in the US, Earthjustice argues, the deal with Able UK also violates US environmental laws.

But Marad last week again insisted that the operation was being handled in "an environmentally responsible and fiscally sound manner", and that all contaminants on board had been properly secured.

In fact, only four of the vessels have embarked on what was supposed to be their final voyage - the Canisteo and the Caloosahatchie, followed by the 1960s-built submarine tender Canopus and the breakbulk cargo ship Compass Island.

What happens next is unclear. One possibility is that the four head for the Azores - though that would require permission from Portugal. The environmental activists, meanwhile, demand that they return directly to the US.

Friends of the Earth, which had threatened legal action against the Environment Agency, is adamant the ships must not enter British waters. "The only justifiable course of action is for the EA to make clear that they must return to the US," said Phil Michaels, the group's legal director.