The fourth ghost ship coming to Teesside was expected to dock today. The Compass Island is one of four retired US naval ships bound for Able UK's Graythorp yard. Legal and technical problems mean that when it docks the company can do nothing more with the ship until questions over its contract are resolved in a High Court case, expected to start next week. The Compass Island completed its 4,500 mile transatlantic crossing last week. But problems in timing its trip up the Tees to Graythorp have seen it circling off Teesmouth since Friday. The docking procedure comes as a new ghost ships row flared. Teesside-based protest group IMPACT is fighting the ghost ships deal. Today it claimed that a Environment Minister Elliot Morley gave a Parliamentary committee probing the ghost ships affair the wrong information about disposal of ships' material contaminated by cancer-linked PCBs. At a select committee hearing last month, Mr Morley told the meeting that most of the PCB-contaminated material from the ships would be incinerated. He later said some would be used as landfill at Able UK's Seaton Meadows site. Today, IMPACT said all PCB contaminated material would be dumped at Seaton Carew and that the comments showed that confusion over the ghost ships issue extended to the very heart of Government. But a senior environment officer with the Environment Agency said dumping PCB-contaminated material in landfill sites designed to prevent liquids escaping was acceptable. Able UK's managing director Peter Stephenson said: "IMPACT continually alleges that these ships contain more PCB-impregnated solids than they actually have. "The dismantling and recycling of any vessel that we are charged with takes place in a safe and controlled manner. "The material will be disposed of at our Seaton Meadow waste landfill site, which has an excellent record and which recently scored highly in terms of its safety following the latest inspection last month by the Environment Agency." Before the ships sailed, the US Government undertook to remove all PCBs on board that it could reach. John Hill, senior environment officer with the Environment Agency, said dumping PCB-contaminated material in landfill sites designed to prevent liquids escaping was an accepted method of disposal. Evening Gazette opinion | 
