U.S. Navy aircraft carriers are the biggest, most powerful, and most expensive weapons the Navy has today. And they seem to have their share of problems of late:
A month after sailors on the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln first noticed their water looked and smelled strange, the service has finally determined that it was polluted with wastewater that leaked into the water supply.
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and USS Abraham Lincoln personnel inspected the potable water tanks and determined on October 20 that “bilge water entered one of the potable water tanks through a hole that was found in the tank’s air vent line, causing the cloudy appearance and odor in the ship’s potable water,” the Navy said in a recent statement.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, bilge water is liquid that drains from the interior areas or upper decks of a ship and gets collected in the lowest part of its body. Though the physical composition of a ship’s bilge water can vary, it’s considered to be wastewater and can consist of everything from sink drainage to fuel to chemicals to even sewage.
Sailors on the Lincoln originally noticed an “odor and cloudy appearance” in the ship’s drinking and bathing water on September 21, and testing the following day revealed that E. coli bacteria was present in some of the vessel’s potable water tanks, the Navy said in an October 13 statement.
The Navy said at the time that the presence of E. coli bacteria was actually unrelated to reports of an “odor and cloudiness,” which the service said disappeared on September 22.
A Navy official told Insider on October 18, nearly a month after the issue was first reported, that it was still “not yet known” what was wrong with the water that caused the unusual smell and appearance.
“However, the three tanks that were found to have water with E. coli also contained the water with the odor and cloudiness. Those tanks were immediately isolated and secured from the potable water system,” Naval Air Forces Cmdr. Zach Harrell told Insider last week.
With the Navy having concluded its investigation, it now acknowledges that wastewater was responsible for the water looking and smelling weird on USS Abraham Lincoln.
The Lincoln is the second aircraft carrier to deal with water contamination issues within the last few weeks.
In September, just days before issues were found on the Lincoln, the Navy said it found what it said were “traces” of jet fuel in the water aboard USS Nimitz. A sailor on the ship — and their parents — told Insider that the issue was worse than what the Navy originally revealed to the public.
Contaminated water hasn’t been isolated to just the Nimitz and the Lincoln either. Navy and Marine Corps veterans told Insider that sailors on Navy flattops, aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, have been drinking and bathing in water contaminated by jet fuel for decades.
Jake Epstein is a Junior Breaking News Reporter on the Speed Desk, based in Boston. He focuses on military, defense, and security issues. Prior, he worked at The Times of Israel, freelanced in the Boston area, and interned at CBS Boston. He graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in journalism and international relations in May 2020. At Lehigh, he was the editor in chief of the independent student newspaper The Brown and White. This first appeared in Insider.
