Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics With its return home, major plumbing issue on board USS Ford can be addressed After nearly a year at sea, the USS Ford is finally home. That means the crew can take some well-earned leave, but it also means plumbing problems on the $13 billion carrier can be fixed. National With its return home, major plumbing issue on board USS Ford can be addressed June 2, 20264:15 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered From By Steve Walsh With its return home, major plumbing issue on board USS Ford can be addressed Listen · 3:43 3:43 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5843057-e1/nx-s1-9794494" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript After nearly a year at sea, the USS Ford is finally home. That means the crew can take some well-earned leave, but it also means plumbing problems on the $13 billion carrier can be fixed. Sponsor Message
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Earlier this year, NPR was the first to report about a failure on the USS Gerald R. Ford. That's the $13 billion aircraft carrier with a toilet system that would randomly break down. The crew of 4,600 people spent almost a year at sea with that faulty system. And now the Ford is finally back home in Norfolk, Virginia, which means the ship can be overhauled to fix the plumbing. Steve Walsh with member station WHRO has this story.
STEVE WALSH, BYLINE: During a recent Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Senator Tim Kaine pressed the top leaders of the Navy about the problems with the sewage system on the USS Gerald R. Ford while it was out on its record-breaking deployment.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TIM KAINE: Are we taking steps with respect to the Ford and other ships in that category to make sure that the plumbing system is sufficient for the needs of sailors deployed?
WALSH: The Virginia Democrat said he had heard from his constituents about problems on USS Ford. The carrier received increasing scrutiny as the Ford went from the military operation around Venezuela to the war in Iran. The story was picked up by outlets around the world, which questioned the strain on the crew as their deployment dragged on. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle pushed back on the seriousness of the issues with the toilets, which the Navy calls heads.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KAINE: Would you...
DARYL CAUDLE: So this is a less than a 1% problem. Now, it's a significant problem when the heads are down.
KAINE: Right.
CAUDLE: But the time between somebody flushing a T-shirt in there, a rag in there, a something else in there that's not supposed to be by our procedure, till it was up again is like a couple hours.
WALSH: NPR was originally contacted by a parent of a sailor on board the Ford about the plumbing problems. I asked Caudle about the issues with the system breaking down when he came to the homecoming for the carrier in May.
CAUDLE: The sanitation systems on board any ship - submarine, destroyer, cruiser, carrier - all have challenges. It's not whether or not if that happens. It's when it does, how do we attack it, fix it, get it back online? And the team on Ford, you know, is very good at that. It's more of a vacuum drag system. And they're extraordinary at keeping it up online.
WALSH: Still, the Ford is getting an upgrade, says Rear Admiral Kavon Hakimzadeh, commander of Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The problems on the Ford were known since before the carrier was finished being built. A decade earlier, toilets on USS George H.W. Bush kept going down when its vacuum system lost pressure, meaning the toilets wouldn't flush.
KAVON HAKIMZADEH: We are implementing the same fixes that the Navy did for the Bush.
WALSH: Emails reviewed by NPR show hull technicians on the Ford were asking sailors' help to find leaks among the hundreds of toilets. A loose valve in one area can cause all of the toilets in that part of the ship to fail. Rear Admiral Hakimzadeh says they will install more valves so sailors can isolate the problems more quickly.
HAKIMZADEH: Right now, it's essentially in quarters. The new system subdivides it significantly further so that a problem in, like, one bathroom doesn't cut off a quarter of the ship.
WALSH: Given all the plumbing issues, the ship also requires an acid flush to clean the pipes. The Government Accountability Office said back in 2020 that it costs $400,000 and can only be done after the ship comes home from deployment. For NPR News, I'm Steve Walsh in Norfolk, Virginia.
(SOUNDBITE OF POST MALONE SONG, "CHEMICAL") Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1169:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(321)},321:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(82)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1141),c(116),c(95),c(52),c(491),c(240),c(102),c(104),c(1142),c(144),c(1143),c(239),c(48),c(1144)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1169,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();