Naval Shipyard Charleston, located on the Cooper River in North Charleston, South Carolina, operated as one of the US Navy’s major ship repair and overhaul facilities on the Southeast Atlantic Coast from the Civil War era through the shipyard’s closure in 1996. The Charleston yard conducted overhaul and repair on a wide range of Navy surface ships and submarines, with the shipyard’s proximity to the Atlantic Fleet submarine operating areas making submarine overhaul a significant part of the yard’s workload. The ship repair work at Charleston Naval Shipyard involved extensive asbestos insulation removal and reinstallation in the engineering plants of ships undergoing overhaul.

Ship Repair Asbestos Exposure

Naval Shipyard Charleston conducted ship repair and overhaul work involving asbestos-containing materials:

  • Steam system pipe covering removal and reinstallation — Pipe Insulator (PI) trades and Navy ratings at Charleston Naval Shipyard removed and reinstalled asbestos pipe covering on steam system piping during ship overhaul work. The pipe covering removal — stripping deteriorated asbestos magnesia block from steam lines throughout the ship’s engineering spaces — generated the highest asbestos fiber concentrations of the shipyard’s work activities
  • Boiler lagging removal — boiler overhaul work at Charleston required removal of the existing asbestos boiler lagging from the boiler exterior before boiler maintenance and reinstallation of new lagging material. The lagging removal generated high concentrations of asbestos fiber in the confined boiler room during the stripping operation
  • Gasket removal during machinery overhaul — the overhaul of steam-driven pumps, valves, and auxiliary machinery involved removing asbestos-containing gaskets at each bolted joint in the machinery being overhauled, with MM and Boilermaker trades performing the gasket removal during the machinery disassembly

Submarine Overhaul Work

Charleston Naval Shipyard conducted significant submarine overhaul work:

  • Submarine nuclear plant overhaul — Charleston conducted nuclear refueling and overhaul (ROH) work on submarine nuclear plants, with the overhaul work including pipe covering removal and reinstallation on reactor plant piping systems in the submarine engineering spaces

VA Claims for Charleston Shipyard Veterans

VA presumptive service connection under 38 CFR § 3.309(d) covers asbestos exposure from ship repair and overhaul work at naval shipyards. Military and civilian workers who performed insulation, mechanical, and pipe work at Naval Shipyard Charleston and have since been diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or asbestos-related lung cancer may qualify for VA disability benefits.