Sep 15, 1998

Hash boat for Neah Bay rescue post?

SEATTLE (AP) -- The giant tugboat Encounter Bay has had an interesting past: oil-rig tender, floating classroom, hashish-hauler. Now, it's been proposed as a rescue tug for oil tankers and other ships in Washington's Strait of Juan de Fuca. Fred Felleman, Northwest director of Ocean Advocates, said the idea was pitched to U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater during a Sunday meeting with community leaders. Slater seemed receptive, Felleman said. "It's just downright encouraging," Felleman said. "He didn't commit to saying, 'Yeah, I'll give it to you,' but he said he would commit his staff resources ... to see if we can make it work." The state Ecology Department, some lawmakers and environmental groups have argued for years that oil tankers should be required to take on tug escorts at Neah Bay, where they enter the strait and Washington's inland marine waters. Failing that, they say, a rescue tug should be placed there, where it could reach a ship in distress relatively quickly. Oil tankers bound for Puget Sound-area refineries now pick up tug escorts at Port Angeles, 70 miles inside the strait. The steamship industry, however, is leery of the idea, because stationing a tug at Neah Bay would run an estimated $2 million for six months, in addition to the boat's multimillion-dollar cost. The state has proposed the costs be shared by it, the oil industry and steamship operators. The 188-foot Encounter Bay has a number of advantages, Felleman said. First of all, it's already owned by the Transportation Department. Built in 1973 as a support vessel for the North Sea oil industry, the oceangoing tug is rugged and has a huge open deck ideal for firefighting, oil-spill and salvage equipment and rescue work, he said. The boat's 5,000 horsepower engine can pull 60 tons, sufficient to handle a disabled tanker or to aid cruise ships and freighters in trouble in the North Pacific, Felleman said. The Encounter Bay ended its commercial career in 1988, when the Coast Guard found it hauling 72 tons of Thai hashish off the Washington coast. It was seized and given to the Army Reserve, which used it to train tug boat crews, and then donated to the Transportation Department in 1991. The department loaned it to Seattle Central Community College's Maritime Academy, which uses it as a hands-on classroom at its berth in Seattle's Ballard district. Among the ideas suggested to Slater was having the college continue to use the Encounter Bay as a training vessel at Neah Bay, when it's not needed in emergencies, Felleman said. The Makah Indian Tribe, whose reservation is at Neah Bay and has long sought to have a tug there, had representatives at the meeting and is anxious to be part of any training program, he said. Felleman said Slater hoped to have the tug issue resolved before winter. Before backing the idea, however, the secretary wanted to meet with all parties involved to define how the Encounter Bay would be used. Staffers for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., have been looking for Navy tugs to serve as a replacement classroom in Seattle for the Maritime Academy. Ocean Advocates estimates it would cost about $1.5 million to operate the Encounter Bay year round, far under the estimates for other alternatives, Felleman said. "By making use of this vessel we are able to provide twice the protection to our increasingly endangered marine resources for half the cost that was being discussed by the industry and state officials," he said.

Vashon tackling its smelly secret

VASHON ISLAND, Wash. (AP) -- The problem with Vashon Island's sewage system is immediately evident with every inhale, particularly at low tide. In some areas of the island, some residents flush directly onto the beach. In others, the untreated sewage is simply drained into barrels cut with drain holes so it seeps directly into the ground. But the Vashon Island Sewer District is leading a cleanup effort that would use technology to convert sewage to water clean enough to return to the aquifer. On a recent day, Mark Salkind stood at the edge of Cove Beach where a small creek dives out of a ravine on the island's west side. Most of the beach is bare gravel, but where the stream meets saltwater, a thick bed of seaweed flares into the brine. "I've been on this beach at times when you can't make up your mind whether to breathe through your nose or through your mouth," said Salkind, a retired marine engineer and vice president of the Vashon Island Sewer District. The stream is fed mostly by fresh water from the island's aquifer, but it picks up its scent as sewage oozes through the ground water from Beulah Park, a community on the bluff above, Salkind said. Since the early 1990s, Beulah Park-Cove and two beach communities -- Bunker Trail and Spring Beach -- have been tagged by the state Health Department as "severe health hazards." Bunker Trail is a community of 30 homes mostly in a line behind bulkheads that flank the ferry dock at the island's north end. Beulah Park is a collection of about 50 small homes on the island's west side. Spring Beach is a community of 13 historic houses near the island's south tip. Most of the houses in those areas flush raw sewage directly into Puget Sound or do so indirectly by letting it seep into the ground water, Salkind said. In most cases, the lots are too small or the ground too thin to utilize a system that would be more efficient, he said. The district's final solution involves two technologies:

• In Bunker Trail, sewage would be collected into a central pipe that leads to a pumping station under the pavement at the highway-ferry dock junction. From there it would be pumped about two miles up to a sewer line leading to the island's only treatment plant in the town of Vashon.
• For Beulah Park and Spring Beach, the district plans a collective sewage-tank system. Gravity would feed household sewage into a train of neighborhood septic tanks, where solids would settle out and undergo the microbial digestion.

The remaining effluent would be put through a purification process to produce water clean enough to drink. The water then would be pumped to a drip-irrigation system installed in a plot of suitable neighborhood ground -- a vacant lot or a park -- where it would re-enter the area's natural ground-water system as clean water. The proposal stalled recently when a $4 million initial construction estimate jumped to $6 million, Salkind said. "To have gone ahead anyway would have found us in the curious position of issuing a contract we couldn't pay for," Salkind said. "That would not have been a good place to be." Jon Savelle is the Journal's environment editor. He can be contacted at (206) 622-8272.

Chmelik & Associates

Bellingham-based Chmelik & Associates has added a new associate. Jennifer R. Willner specializes in employment law and personnel related issues. Willner was formerly an associate for the Seattle firm of Groshong & Thornton.

Advanced Interactive Systems

Advanced Interactive Systems, a Tukwila company specializing in reality-based simulation training systems, has appointed Dr. Stephen Elston vice president of product development. Elston will be responsible for engineering, documentation and quality assurance for interactive shooting simulation products for civilians and law enforcement. Elston formerly served as vice president of engineering at Cellular Technical Services.

Immunex

Barry G. Pea has been promoted to vice president and deputy general counsel of Immunex Corp. Pea formerly served as associate general counsel. Immunex is a Seattle biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing immune system science to protect human health.

Washington State DOT

Lynn Lampe has been selected communications and public involvement director for the Washington State Department of Transportation. Lampe was administrator, chief of staff and manager of communications and development at Bay Area Rapid Transit.

Metawave

Metawave Communications Corp., a Redmond-based provider of spectrum management solutions for the wireless communications industry, has promoted Dr. Martin J. Feuerstein to vice president of advanced technology. Feuerstein formerly served as director of research. Feuerstein will lead efforts to expand the smart antenna systems.

Doubletree Hotel

Favio Gomez has been named executive chef at the Doubletree Hotel in Bellevue. Gomez formerly worked at the Universal City Hilton and Towers in California. Laura Ulkus has joined Doubletree Hotels Corp. as Washington state area director of sales. Ulkus will be responsible for new regional business development and client relations. Ulkus formerly served as director of sales at Embassy Suites Napa Valley.

Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Seattle-King County Convention & Visitors Bureau has been awarded the 1998 Gold Service Award by readers of Meetings and Conventions magazine. This is the eighth time in a decade the bureau has been honored with the Gold Service Award.

GLY

Three new employees have joined GLY Construction: Jim Elliott and Mike Barrett are project managers and Tyler Tonkin is a project engineer. Elliott is a construction management graduate of the University of Washington and is managing an expansion at Nintendo headquarters and providing preconstruction services for Overlake Hospital's medical office building. Barrett is a construction engineering graduate from Oregon State University and is working on the new REI store at Redmond Town Center. Tonkin holds a construction management degree from Central Washington University and is providing engineering support for the new Optiva headquarters in the Quadrant Snoqualmie Ridge Business Park.

Hos Bros.

Hos Bros. Construction Inc. has relocated its offices to Woodinville. The new address is: 7733 W. Bostian Road, Woodinville, WA 98072. The contractor's mailing address and phone numbers remain the same.

ASCC

The American Society for Concrete Construction has decided to change its name to the American Society of Concrete Contractors. The association's acronym -- ASCC -- and logo will remain unchanged. ASCC decided to change its name because 75 percent of its members are contractors.