November 19, 2002

Environmental Watch: Oregon gets $25M to remove New Carissa

COQUILLE, Ore. (AP) -- A Coos County Circuit Court jury has decided the damage caused by the grounding of the New Carissa was temporary, not permanent, and awarded the state $25 million to hire a contractor to remove the remaining wreckage from a public beach.

The verdict may not be the end of the story that grabbed headlines three years ago as rescue attempts hit one snag after another.

The ship's owners were disappointed with the verdict and have not decided whether to appeal, said spokeswoman Melinda Merrill.

Depending on whether there is an appeal, the state's attorney, William Wheatley, said it could be years before Oregon receives the money to clean up the beach. "The state would like to get started, but the legal process might have a few more bumps in the road before we get there."

The jury deliberated less than seven hours over evidence presented in the month-long trial before reaching the 10-2 verdict Wednesday.

Jurors said they agreed with the state's argument that the captain of the ship was negligent in deciding to anchor in a winter storm, rather than steaming in circles while waiting for the weather to subside enough for a pilot to take the ship into port.

The ship was owned by Green Atlas S.A. of Panama and operated by TMM Co. of Japan. Both companies are owned by Taiheiyo Kaiun Co. of Japan.

Roman Silberfeld, the lawyer for the ship's owners, argued there was no negligence by the crew. Silberfeld blamed the grounding on three primary factors: faulty marine charts, unexpected weather and the failure of the pilot who was bringing the ship into port to warn the ship about the dangers of anchoring.

He said there was no reason to remove the wreckage because the oil has all run out of it and it poses no obstacle to navigation, shipping or use of the beach.

But the jury found all three defendants negligent in allowing the ship to trespass on the state's beach. Moreover, it found that the trespassing caused injury to the beach.

Jurors Willie Sadler and King Frey were not convinced the New Carissa's crew was negligent.

Frey, a former tugboat owner, said he fully agreed with the captain's decision to anchor off the mouth of Coos Bay to wait out the storm.

But jurors Jill Donaldson, Cindy Jorgensen and Mickey Ivey, who voted with the majority, all agreed with the state.

"I felt it was just common sense not to anchor a big, old flat-sided boat in a gale," Jorgensen said.

All jurors who agreed to be interviewed said the toughest part of their decision was deciding whether the damage to the beach was temporary and should be cleaned up.

"I just they felt they had to get back in there and clean up their mess," Jorgensen said.

The New Carissa ran aground on Feb. 4, 1999. After a week of being pounded by the surf, the hull cracked and oozed oil from the engine fuel supply, posing a threat to the endangered western snowy plover, Dungeness crabs and an oyster farm.

The U.S. Coast Guard set the ship on fire in a dramatic attempt to burn off the 400,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil, but the effort was not completely successful. The fire was blamed for weakening the hull, which broke in two, and approximately 70,000 gallons of oil leaked into the surf.

A tug hauled the bow off the beach, but it got away when the tow cable parted in a storm and ran aground off Waldport. Hauled off again, the bow was sunk by a torpedo fired by a Navy submarine on March 11, 1999.

Recycling continues at Seahawks Stadium

SEATTLE -- You might think that after kickoff, football fans aren't too interested in recycling, but you'd be wrong.

In Seattle this season, Seahawk fans at the new stadium have saved an estimated 100,000 plastic bottles (that's more than 5 tons) and 35 tons of cardboard. The Seahawks, First & Goal and Seattle Public Utilities celebrated the milestone Thursday, which was America Recycles Day.

The Seahawks Stadium program relies, in part, on its simplicity and color coding. With the slogan, "Go Blue to Recycle!," the program features distinctive blue bins distributed throughout the stadium to allow fans to recycle plastic bottles.

The bins are part of the utility's Public Place Event Recycling pilot program, which collected more than 25 tons of plastic bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard at 10 community festivals this year.

$500,000 for Columbia ballast water study

PORTLAND -- Portland State University's Center for Lakes and Reservoirs has started to work on the Columbia River Aquatic Nuisance Species Initiative.

The initiative is a joint effort by PSU, the ports of Astoria and Portland and Sen. Ron Wyden. The goal is to reduce the threat of invasive aquatic plants and animals introduced to the Columbia through shipping activities.

With a $500,000 federal grant, officials of the Center for Lakes and Reservoirs say they will develop tools to enforce ballast water management regulations and examine the organisms introduced to the river from the discharge of ballast and through hull fouling.

Through support of the initiative, the Oregon Legislature last year established a program that requires, with certain exceptions, that cargo vessels on transoceanic voyages exchange their ballast water in mid-ocean before calling on Oregon ports. The law also requires that vessels on coastal voyages from domestic ports to Oregon ports exchange any ballast taken onboard in a West Coast port south of 40 degrees north latitude and north of 50 degrees north latitude. The exchange replaces port water with the more saline ocean water, which kills invasive species adapted to lower-salinity.

The Center for Lakes and Reservoirs will conduct research to develop protocols to verify ships have exchanged ballast water. Current verification methods are inadequate, according to the center.

D.C. museum going 'Big & Green'

WASHINGTON -- The National Building Museum will open a major exhibition, "Big & Green: Toward Sustainable Architecture in the 21st Century," Jan. 17.

Through in-depth profiles of 50 contemporary green projects worldwide, along with a broad examination of global ecological and economic forces, the exhibition will demonstrate the powers of sustainable design. The project lineup focuses on large-scale buildings, such as skyscrapers, factories, stadia, apartment complexes, convention centers, shopping complexes and other megastructures.

Meetings and events on the environment

SEATTLE -- The following conferences and meetings are scheduled in the Puget Sound region:

• Commencement Bay cleanup. A key environmental cleanup of Commencement Bay will begin in less than a year. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a two-hour meeting about the project at 7 p.m. in Room 104 of the World Trade Center, 3600 Port of Tacoma Road. EPA staff members will present project plans and discuss the activities planned for the next 2 1/2 years. More than 1 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment will be dredged in 2003 through 2005.

• Building Imagination. Learn what builders are doing in Seattle to foster the local living economy while delivering environmentally responsible development, designs and materials at "Building Imagination." The Nov. 21 event will be at NewHolly Community Center, 7050 32nd Ave. S. in Seattle. There will be a tour of NewHolly from 5 to 6:30 p.m. and a 7 p.m. panel discussion. Panelists are Chris Luboff, who works in waste management for the city of Seattle; Jeff Wartelle, a timber and forest management expert; Matt Freeman Gleason, founder of Environmental Home Center; architect Paul Olson of Jones and Jones; Mark Huppert, principal of Catapult Community Developers; and architect Christine Magar, who will moderate the discussion. Sponsored by the Seattle chapter of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and underwritten by the Seattle Housing Authority and Windermere, registration is not required. For more information, telephone Ben Kaufman of BALLE at (206) 300-0115.