HMCS Chaleur Demolition

In partnership with the U.S. Coast Guard, Power Engineering Construction successfully demolished and removed the derelict Canadian minesweeper HMCS Chaleur from Little Potato Slough near Stockton, California. The 154-foot, 491-ton oil-soaked vessel had been deteriorating for years and posed an imminent threat to the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta ecosystem and the City of Stockton’s downstream drinking water intake.

Before any demolition began, the DB Pacific was mobilized to install turbidity curtain, debris boom, and absorbent boom around the wreck to contain the discharge of oil. Throughout the project, Power’s dive teams continuously deployed absorbent booms, pads, and skimmers, often pausing salvage operations to capture unexpected releases.

Chaleur’s fragile wooden structure, compounded by poor visibility and tight underwater spaces, required ingenuity. Power designed an equalizing rigging system and fabricated custom flat-strap to safely lift each section without collapsing the hull. To maneuver straps beneath the wreck in debris-laden soil, our crew built special jetting rods to run messenger lines and pull through the larger rigging.

Inside the wreck, divers used high-pressure water blasters to cut through the timber hull supplemented by hydraulic reciprocating saws, chainsaws, circular saws.  When on-site conditions slowed progress, two barge-mounted excavators equipped with hydraulic shears were brought in to finalize cuts through the hull. Despite increased discharge from this method, our crews successfully contained all releases, ensuring safe continuation of the work.

Once cut into manageable sections, each piece was carefully lifted, dewatered, and secured on material barges for transport to San Francisco for final disposal. The process demanded creative dewatering (cutting drainage holes in hull bulkheads and managing hours-long pump-outs) to keep each lift within the crane’s capacity. Three material barges were required to transport the vessel’s remains.

With the removal of HMCS Chaleur, as well as USS Mazapeta last year, both completed by Power Engineering Construction, the Coast Guard has eliminated two major pollution sources in one of California’s sensitive

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