BENICIA, California (AP) — The federal government on Wednesday said it would remove a decaying armada of military vessels dating back to the Second World War from a San Francisco Bay waterway that has been polluted by the boats for decades.

The US Maritime Administration, or MARAD, settled a lawsuit and agreed to remove most of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, known as the "ghost fleet," a decrepit collection of mostly obsolete military vessels.

The grey and rust-red ships, some with their hulls flaked with peeling paint, are anchored in rows in Suisun Bay, a shallow estuary between San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Studies by the administration have suggested the old warships have dumped more than 20 tons of copper, lead, zinc and other metals into the estuary, a critical habitat for a number of endangered species.The settlement involving MARAD, environmental groups and state water quality regulators will see half of the ships deemed obsolete — the 25 worst polluters — removed by September 2012, with the rest of the 52 ships gone by September 2017.