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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015
Peninsula ports dredging up sediment solutions
Ilwaco seeks a new
location to dispose
of dredge spoils
he and other staff did locate two eventu-
ally: one near the marina and one near
the Cape Disappointment Coast Guard
station.
Such a system has been successfully
implemented at the Port of Willapa Har-
By KATIE WILSON
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EO Media Group
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ILWACO, Wash. — Port manag-
She said they did have some trouble
ers in Ilwaco and Chinook say they are
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lucky to have landed a commitment
pipeline that feeds the material towards
from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
the underwater dispersal site.
to dredge federally managed channels
That port also decided to place the
— crucial to both ports’ continued sur-
system in an area somewhat shallower
vival — for the second year in a row, but
than Shepsis would normally prefer.
that doesn’t mean all of their problems
It was worth the risk, Chaffee said
are solved.
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DAMIAN MULINIX — EO Media Group
Despite the dredging the Corps com-
Bay Center (marina) and Tokeland (ma-
pleted last year, the Port of Ilwaco’s Bak- A dredge pulls up a load of sediment during local work last year. Ad- ULQDLIZHGLGQ¶WKDYHÀRZODQHGLVSRV-
HU%D\LVDOUHDG\¿OOLQJEDFNXSDQGZLOO ditional work is expected later in 2015.
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likely need work well into the future.
The process was just more compli-
Meanwhile, a dredge disposal site at the tion by Vladimir Shepsis, a coastal engi- out these holes scatters the excess sedi- cated than they thought it would be, she
far end of the marina is nearing capaci- neer with Coast and Harbor Engineering. ment.
told the people gathered in the Port of
ty and port commissioners will have to After examining a variety of possible
Shepsis said the sediment comes Ilwaco’s conference room.
come up with a new way to dispose of solutions, Shepsis said that, from an en- from the Columbia River and should,
The Port of Ilwaco’s current disposal
or disperse the material dredged from the gineering point of view, the port’s best preferably, go back into that ecosystem. site, a strip of land east of the marina, is
river and the marina.
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Finding good holes
At a meeting with congressional dispersal system where dredged material
fully found a way to move the material
+HVDLGKHKDGVRPHWURXEOH¿QGLQJ elsewhere. Under permits from the state
representatives and employees with the is dumped in naturally occurring depres-
Corps April 2, port staff and commis- sions or holes on the river bottom. The good, deep holes in places he’d other- Department of Ecology, the port can use
sioners listened to an informal presenta- VWURQJÀRZRIZDWHUWKDWDOUHDG\VFRRSV wise except to see them near the port, but GUHGJHVSRLOVIRU³EHQH¿FLDOXVH´XVLQJ
the material on its own lands or possibly
giving it to other entities. The material
coming out of the marina is considered
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Sediment management
However, efforts to use or get rid of
the material have not been successful.
But taking care of the sediment is
one of the port’s major concerns. Not
much more than a decade ago, Baker
Bay did not need the constant atten-
tion it seems to require now. Many
WKLQJV FRXOG EH LQÀXHQFLQJ WKH EXLOG
up of sentiment and much of the sedi-
ment could technically be coming from
across the river.
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From an engineering perspective, the
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Ilwaco, Shepsis said. It doesn’t mean it
is the best solution, he added, since he is
not aware of what other issues surround-
ing those areas — habitat concerns,
politics — might make such a use less
feasible if not impossible. That is infor-
mation he will look to the Ilwaco Port
Commission to provide.
Port Manager Guy Glenn Jr., said he
and the commission will likely discuss
these things at a port meeting this month.
'DWDFHQWHUVHFXULW\ÀDZV Sen. Johnson says state
IURPVWLOOQRW¿[HG will fund Amtrak line
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Three years after
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weaknesses at Oregon’s main
data center in Salem, the state has
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The vulnerabilities were out-
lined in a secret March 2012 letter
to Michael Jordan, who was at the
time director of the Department
of Administrative Services, which
manages the data warehouse. The
facility stores data for multiple
state agencies.
The extent of the problem re-
mains unclear, because the agency
declined to release the letter in re-
sponse to a public records request
from the EO Media Group/Pam-
plin Media Group Capital Bureau.
Auditors are in the midst of anoth-
er periodic review of security at the
center and they expect to complete
the report this summer.
State agencies have struggled
for years to keep Oregonians’ data
secure. Earlier this month, the EO
Media Group/Pamplin Media
Group Capital Bureau reported
that outdated security protocols
on state websites left Oregonians
vulnerable to attackers when they
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ployment claims and completed
other online transactions.
One reason the Department of
Administrative Services does not
want the public to see the 2012
letter is that attackers could take
advantage of security weakness-
es at the data center that it has not
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Matt Shelby, a spokesman for
the Department of Administrative
Services, wrote in an email that
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that we would release because it
discusses past and current security
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Nonetheless, Shelby said in an
interview Tuesday that according
to state Chief Information Secu-
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ployees have addressed approx-
imately one-third of the security
issues cited by auditors.
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percent to 75 percent of what we
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Shelby said the Department of
Administrative Services agreed
with all the auditors’ recommen-
dations, which called for the agen-
cy to purchase new tools as well
DVGH¿QHDQGGRFXPHQWLWVVHFXUL-
ty processes.
Hackers recently accessed
data at the center, Gov. Kate
Brown revealed last month, but
Shelby said that breach was un-
related to the security problems
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Shelby said one of the of the sug-
gestions auditors laid out in the
letter would have helped IT staff
to more quickly assess which
types of data attackers accessed.
The state data center had not
yet installed centralized log man-
agement software, which would
have allowed employees to more
quickly assess the scope of the
data breach, Shelby said.
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The data center is now in the
process of installing the central-
ized log management software,
an improvement that was planned
before the breach. IT employ-
ees ultimately learned hackers
had accessed metadata about the
movement of information across
the state computer network.
The public portion of the 2012
data center security audit only
hinted at the security vulnerabili-
ties that auditors found. It focused
on improper handling of media
tapes and incomplete or not fully
tested recovery programs used af-
ter events such as major computer
crashes.
The only mention of weak-
nesses that could leave the center
vulnerable to hackers was a single
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security review, one of the two
objectives of the audit, were sum-
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to Jordan.
The report was unusual be-
cause state auditors usually pro-
vide at least a general description
of the range of problems they
found and analysis of the caus-
es. For example, a 2010 audit of
security at the data center clearly
stated there were problems.
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that collectively heightened the
risk that applications hosted at
the (state data center) could be
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that most of these security issues
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A spokeswoman for Brown,
who was secretary of state and
oversaw the Audits Division in
2012, referred questions about
why the 2012 security concerns
were kept secret to the current
Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins.
Tony Green, a spokesman for At-
kins, said it would require a fair
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why auditors disclosed security
concerns in 2010 but not in 2012.
³%XW JHQHUDOO\ VSHDNLQJ DX-
ditors weigh the security risks
known at that time against the
best way to get the recommenda-
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vice, and has relied on federal
subsidies to pay for part of the
cost. But those subsidies have
SALEM — One key
now ended.
legislator says Oregon will
In the next two-year bud-
continue state-supported
get cycle starting July 1, the
passenger rail service be-
state will have to pick up the
tween Portland and Eu-
full cost of the service af-
gene, despite press reports
ter ticket sales, which cover
about two-thirds of the bill.
suggesting otherwise.
Courtesy Oregon Department of
But before that happens,
Sen. Betsy Johnson,
Transportation
Johnson says Amtrak has
D-Scappoose, says law-
makers will come up with A top Democratic lawmak- to do something about the
enough money to contin- er says the Legislature will schedule to make the service
ue twice-daily runs in the come up with the $10.4 mil- more appealing to riders.
lion necessary to fund pas-
7KH¿UVWWUDLQOHDYHV3RUW-
Willamette Valley.
³7KHUH LV QR VWRU\ senger rail service in the land at 6 a.m. on weekdays,
too early for potential com-
KHUH´VD\V-RKQVRQZKR¶V Willamette Valley.
muters bound for work in
the Senate co-chairwoman
of the Legislature’s joint likely have to end passenger Salem. Prior Jan. 1, 2014, the
budget subcommittee on VHUYLFH´ VD\V 6KHOOH\ 6QRZ ¿UVWWUDLQOHIWDWDP²
transportation and eco- a spokeswoman for the Ore- too late for commuters.
gon Department of Transpor-
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nomic development.
son says.
On Dec. 1, former Gov. tation.
Johnson said that’s not go-
According to the Oregon
John Kitzhaber’s budget
Department of Transporta-
package proposed $10.4 ing to happen.
The elimination of the tion, only 5,529 riders took
million in subsidies from
the general fund to Am- service would prove embar- the early morning train south
trak to operate the service. UDVVLQJ WR VWDWH RI¿FLDOV ZKR in all of 2014, compared to
That’s in addition to around in 2009 used $38.4 million to 45,858 who boarded in Port-
$18 million the state kicks buy two locomotives and pas- land at 6 p.m. for the last
in from non-general fund senger cars for two trains to southbound run.
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service the Oregon corridor.
sources.
in the Oregon Capital Insider
So far, the Legislature’s They began service in 2013.
Oregon contracts with newsletter. To subscribe, go to
budget framework propos-
es just $5 million in state Amtrak to provide the ser- oregoncapitalinsider.com
general funds.
But without the full
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The Secretary of State’s Of-
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2012 letter.
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says this agency is vulnerable to
a hack that’s kind of like printing
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wrote.
Brown’s communications di-
rector Kristen Grainger said that
as secretary of state and now as
governor, Brown has also shared
the concern that identifying se-
curity weaknesses could make it
easier for attackers to access Or-
egonians’ data.
³,WKLQNWRDFHUWDLQH[WHQWVKH
wants to be very careful not to
bring this to the attention of hack-
ers or people who would do harm
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said.
However, Grainger said
Brown wants to address what
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breaches at state agencies —
hackers accessed databases at the
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Oregon Employment Department
in 2014 — and that is why the
governor wants to hire an inde-
pendent expert to review state IT
management and vulnerabilities.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
W A NTED
S ou s a tradition
The
C O N D U CT E D B Y D A VE B ECK ER
NORTH COAST SYMPHONIC BAND
2:00 PM
SU N D AY
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
I’ve told Mom the same thing three times
…but she seems to keep forgetting.
IT’S NOT LIKE HER.
APRIL 19
L IBE RTY TH E ATE R, ASTO RIA
D O O RS O PEN AT 1:15
PRE -SH O W AT 1:30:
A storia Tu ba Q u a rtet
GU E ST P E RF O RM E R:
Ed ith Fa rra r
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Ba ton Tw irler
9 1 1
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a n d $7 for stu d en ts
L iberty T h ea ter B ox O ffice,
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THE N U M BER TO K N OW
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