Preparation work begins on SS United States as NWFL counties debate over sinking site

MOBILE, Ala. -- Contractors were out on the SS United States Tuesday in Mobile preparing it to become the world's largest artificial reef. Hazardous materials on board the ship need to be removed before it's sunk in the gulf.

As this is taking place, Bay County has offered Okaloosa County $3 million to sink it closer to Panama City Beach. This has begun a game of tug-of-war between Escambia and Bay County, who have both offered money to Okaloosa County.

Bay County's offer would sink it 20 miles closer to Panama City Beach. And as this is all happening, a federal lawsuit was filed last week to stop this entire process altogether.

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Contractors are hard at work in the port of Mobile preparing to sink the SS United States in the gulf.

'It's going to have all the oils and remaining fuels out of the tanks. There's 120 of those," said Alex Fogg, coastal resource manager in Okaloosa County. "That's going to be a major undertaking."

As that work begins, Okaloosa County continues to receive new offers to sink the ship in different areas of the gulf.

Okaloosa County has three permitted locations to sink the ship. One is southwest of Destin, closer to Pensacola, another location is directly off the coast of Destin and the other is southeast of Destin, closer to Bay County.

"We actually already have permits in hand. We have locations that will work to the south or the southeast or southwest," Fogg said. "We have numerous places where we can put it. We still have to do bottom surveys to make sure where we put it, there's nothing there."

The Tourism Development Council in Bay County heard from Panama City dive shops, stating access to the SS United States would be crucial to their businesses.

Dive shops in Escambia and Okaloosa county are making similar arguments.

Anna Schmitz owns Emerald Coast Scuba in Destin. She said distance and depth are important.

"It's important for us to be able to get there in a reasonable amount of time and also the depth of it is pretty important," Schmitz said. "We have a depth limit for new divers of 60 feet. They're predicting the depth of the main deck to be 60 feet. So that would be wonderful if we could take our new divers there."

Kerry Freeland owns Dive Pros in Pensacola. His shop is selling t-shirts hoping to help pay to have the ship closer to Pensacola.

The Escambia County Tourism Development Council offered $1 million to Okaloosa County to sink it closer to Pensacola and help promote the ship.

"Do I think we need to sweeten the deal? No, I don't," Freeland said. "I believe if it were to go over to the Bay County area, it would be further from the folks at Okaloosa County to get to than if they kept to what we were discussing moving it further to the west. It's going to be closer to the pass if they move it towards the west, rather than to Bay County."

Freeland says longer distance would also mean a higher cost for dive shops and fisherman to access the reef.

The New York Coalition filed a lawsuit against Okaloosa County this month to save the steam ship. It states the SS United States is a historic landmark and should be restored and preserved instead of sunk.

The coalition also wrote a letter to the White House urging President Donald Trump to halt the process and save the ship. It's unclear if they received that letter.

Okaloosa County says they are aware of the lawsuit but cannot comment. They say it will take five to eight months to remove all the hazardous materials out of the ship.