NORTH COAST
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JULY 27, 2015
3A
Electrical failure caused
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The Daily Astorian
Linh DePledge/For The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — The
cause of a ¿re that damaged a
Warrenton triplex July 13 has
been changed, after further in-
vestigation by the Warrenton
Fire Department.
An electrical failure in
circuit wiring was found in
the remains of the exterior
wall and is believed to be the
cause.
The new information was
discovered after the ¿re de-
partment re-interviewed the
occupant and the landlord,
leading to investigators re-
turning to the scene.
Of¿cials originally at-
tributed the ¿re to smoking
debris found in a chair, which
had been sitting against an ex-
terior wall on the deck. The
¿re department now knows
the occupant did not start the
¿re by smoking and it was not
her fault.
The ¿re department re-
sponded to the ¿re at the tri-
plex on the 92000 block of
Hummingbird Drive. First ar-
riving crews found heavy ¿re
enveloping a large, covered
deck on the second Àoor.
The ¿re had also extended
into the second Àoor apart-
ment.
Nearly half of the triplex
was damaged from the ¿re,
including smoke and water
damage.
Disaster action volunteers
with the American Red Cross
responded to triplex. This
multi-family ¿re affected one
adult and a pet.
The Red Cross provided
food, lodging, clothing, shoes,
comfort kits and recovery in-
formation.
The MSV Fennica, a Finnish flagged icebreaker, passed through Astoria Friday on
its way to a Portland shipyard for repairs.
Half of Columbia River sockeye
Activists protest icebreaker salmon dying due to hot water
Vessel needed
for offshore
drilling
By KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
Associated Press
PORTLAND — En-
vironmental activists in
Portland are protesting
the arrival of the Fenni-
ca, a vessel that Royal
Dutch Shell PLC plans to
use in its Arctic offshore
drilling project after it’s
repaired.
The damaged ship, a
380-foot icebreaker, ar-
rived at a Swan Island dry
Linh DePledge/For The Daily Astorian
dock about 3 a.m. Satur-
day. The icebreaker is a The MSV Fennica picked up a U.S. Coast Guard escort
key part of Shell’s explo- in Astoria.
ration and spill-response
plan off Alaska’s north- only drill the top sections Sierra Club’s Arctic cam-
west coast. It protects of wells because the com- paign, said in a statement.
Shell’s fleet from ice and pany doesn’t have criti-
Environmentalists
carries equipment that can cal emergency response worry the Arctic’s remote-
stop gushing oil.
equipment on site to cap ness and rugged condi-
The Fennica was dam- a well in case of a leak. tions will hamper cleanup
aged earlier this month in That equipment is aboard efforts in the event of a
the Aleutian Islands when the Fennica.
spill, risking devastation
it struck an underwater
The missing safe- of a fragile marine eco-
obstruction, tearing a gash ty equipment is called a system.
in its hull.
capping stack, a roughly
But proponents of arc-
About 75 “kayaktiv- 30-foot-tall device that tic drilling say it can be
ists” and other protesters can be lowered onto a conducted safely with
in boats were on the wa- wellhead to stop gushing existing technologies and
ter Saturday afternoon, oil after a blowout or con- that future production will
near where the Fennica is nect to hoses to direct oil help sustain the country’s
docked, holding a peace- to vessels on the surface.
energy needs and limit re-
ful on-the-water rally
The Interior Depart- liance on imports.
against arctic offshore ment’s Bureau of Safety
Shell
spokeswoman
drilling, activist Mia Re- and Environmental En- Kelly op de Weegh said
back said. No arrests have forcement said in a state- by email earlier this week
been made.
ment that Shell could that receipt of the drilling
Environmental groups submit an amended appli- permits signals the end of
had wanted the Obama cation for deeper drilling the permitting process,
administration to reject when the capping stack and drilling will begin
permits sought by Shell can be deployed within 24 when the area is clear of
to drill in the Chukchi Sea hours.
sea ice. Both of Shell’s
because of the absence of
“President Obama ig- drill rigs are on their way
the icebreaker.
nored the will of the peo- to the Chukchi sea.
But earlier this week, ple earlier this week when
The U.S. Geological
the federal government he undercut his climate Survey estimates the Arc-
gave Shell approval to be- legacy and gave condi- tic offshore reserves in
gin limited exploratory oil tional approval to Shell the Chukchi and Beaufort
drilling in Chukchi Sea, to drill in the Arctic,” seas at 26 billion barrels
with conditions. Shell can Dan Ritzman, director of of recoverable oil.
BOISE — More than a
quarter million sockeye salm-
on returning from the ocean to
spawn are either dead or dy-
ing in the Columbia River and
its tributaries due to warming
water temperatures.
Federal and state ¿sheries
biologists say the warm wa-
ter is lethal for the cold-water
species and is wiping out at
least half of this year’s return
of 500,000 ¿sh.
“We had a really big mi-
gration of sockeye,” said
Ritchie Graves of the Nation-
al Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. “The thing
that really hurts is we’re go-
ing to lose a majority of those
¿sh.”
He said up to 80 percent of
the population could ultimate-
ly perish.
Elsewhere in the region,
state ¿sheries biologists in
Oregon say more than 100
spring Chinook died earlier
this month in the Middle Fork
of the John Day River when
water temperatures hit the
mid-70s. Oregon and Wash-
ington state have both enact-
ed sport ¿shing closures due
to warm water, and sturgeon
¿shing in the Columbia River
upstream of Bonneville Dam
has been halted after some
of the large, bottom dwelling
¿sh started turning up dead.
Efforts by management
teams to cool Àows below 70
degrees by releasing cold wa-
ter from selected reservoirs
are continuing in an attempt
to prevent similar ¿sh kills
among Chinook salmon and
steelhead, which migrate later
in the summer from the Pacif-
ic Ocean.
The ¿sh become stressed
at temperatures above 68 de-
grees and stop migrating at 74
degrees. Much of the basin is
at or over 70 degrees due to a
combination that experts at-
tribute to drought and record
heat in June.
“The tributaries are run-
ning hot,” Graves said. “A lot
of those are in the 76-degree
range.”
In Idaho, an emergency
declaration earlier this month
allowed state ¿sheries man-
agers to capture endangered
Snake River sockeye destined
for central Idaho and take them
to a hatchery to recover in cool-
er water. Of the 4,000 ¿sh that
passed Bonneville Dam on
the Columbia River, less than
a fourth made it to Ice Harbor
Dam on the Snake River. An
average year is 70 percent.
“Right now it’s grim for
adult sockeye,” said Russ
Kiefer of the Idaho Depart-
ment of Fish and Game. He
said sockeye will often pull
into tributary rivers in search
of cooler water, but aren’t
¿nding much relief.
“They’re running out of
energy reserves, and we’re
getting a lot of reports of ¿sh
dead and dying,” he said.
Thirteen species of salmon
and steelhead are listed as en-
dangered or threatened in the
Columbia River basin.
Don Campton of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service said
¿sh congregating in con¿ned
areas trying to ¿nd cool water
makes them a target for patho-
gens.
“When temperatures get
warm, it does stress the ¿sh
out and they become suscepti-
ble to disease,” he said.
Graves said that this year’s
Àow in the Columbia River is
among the lowest in the last
60 years. But he said the sys-
tem has experienced similar
low Àows without the lethal
water temperatures. He said
the difference this year has
been prolonged hot tempera-
tures, sometimes more than
100 degrees, in the interior
part of the basin.
“The Àow is abnormally
low, but on top of that we’ve
had superhot temperatures for
a really long time,” he said.
Police plan extra pedestrian safety enforcement
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria Police De-
partment will have extra
officers on duty Friday for
a pedestrian safety enforce-
ment program.
The program is in con-
junction with Oregon Im-
pact, a group that provides
educational experiences to
end impaired and distracted
driving.
It will focus on driv-
ers that fail to yield to
an officer who is acting
as a pedestrian, crossing
at marked and unmarked
crosswalks.
In addition, the officer
will be watching for vehi-
cles that pass another vehi-
cle that stopped for a pedes-
trian in a crosswalk.
Officers will be enforc-
ing other traffic violations
seen during the enforce-
ment.
The fine for failing to
stop and remain stopped for
a pedestrian or for passing a
vehicle that is stopped at a
crosswalk for a pedestrian
is $260.
The goal of the enforce-
ment is to increase the safe-
ty of all pedestrians and
drivers in and around the
city, according to the police.
The project is paid for with
grant money awarded to the
Astoria Police Department
by Oregon Impact.
For questions about the
project, contact Sgt. Brian
Aydt at the Astoria Police
Department or by phone at
503-325-4411.
Q&A: A look at Shell Oil and Arctic offshore drilling operations
By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE — Shell
Oil drill vessels are heading to
the Arctic.
But they will not be permit-
ted to drill into petroleum-bear-
ing rock until a key piece of
blowout response equipment, a
capping stack, is on site.
The capping stack is car-
ried on the icebreaker Fennica,
which arrived early Saturday
for repairs in Portland, Oregon.
Arctic offshore drilling op-
ponents plan to demonstrate
while the Fennica is in port.
What’s at stake?
Royal Dutch Shell and oth-
er companies want to tap into
U.S. Arctic offshore reserves
that the U.S. Geological Sur-
vey estimates at 26 billion
barrels of recoverable oil and
130 trillion cubic feet of nat-
ural gas.
Shell has invested upward
of $7 billion in Arctic offshore
investment. During the 2015
summer open water season, it
hopes to drill two wells to be-
gin determining whether there
are commercial quantities
of oil at its Burger Prospect
about 70 miles off the coast in
the Chukchi Sea.
Offshore Alaska offers
some of the most proli¿c,
undeveloped hydrocarbon ba-
sins in the world, potentially
increasing domestic supply by
over 1 million new barrels of
oil per day, according to Shell.
Why are conservation
groups opposed?
Environmental
groups
contend oil companies have
not demonstrated they can
clean up a major spill in ocean
that ranges from open to fro-
zen to slushy, putting the Arc-
tic’s rich marine life at stake.
The drill sites are more
than 1,000 miles from the
nearest Coast Guard base.
The northern Alaska coastline
lacks deep-water ports, major
airports and basic infrastruc-
ture such as hotel accommo-
dations for spill responders.
Critics also say opening a
new, vast fossil fuel ¿eld will
delay a transition to renew-
able energy and add to a glob-
al warming problem that has
hit the Arctic hard by reducing
sea ice, a habitat critical to po-
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Is exploratory drilling
safe?
Exploratory wells will be
drilled in water 130 to 140
feet deep — far different from
the 5,000-foot water depth of
the well in the Gulf of Mex-
ico’s Deepwater Horizon ex-
plosion and blowout in April
2010. Shell expects to drill
wells under a fraction of the
pressure of the well in that
disaster.
Shell says its Àotilla of
about 30 vessels will have ev-
erything on hand to respond
in the “unlikely” event of a
blowout.
Drilling foes say Shell’s
performance in 2012, the last
time it sailed north, is evi-
dence of what can go wrong.
One rig was separated from
its tow vessel and ran aground
off Kodiak. The other was
¿ned $12.1 million for break-
ing maritime law.
What is being repaired
in Portland?
The Fennica is a Finnish
icebreaker. The vessel’s hull
received a gash roughly 3-feet
long and a half-inch wide July
3 as it departed Dutch Har-
bor, Alaska. Shell considered
a temporary ¿x in Alaska but
decided to make a permanent
¿x at Portland’s Vigor ship-
yard.
The vessel’s primary pur-
pose is to carry a capping
stack, a roughly 30-foot piece
of gear that in a blowout can
form a metal-to-metal con-
tact on a wellhead. The cap-
ping stack is designed to shut
off oil like a giant spigot or
connect to hoses to direct oil
to vessels on the surface. It
would be maneuvered into
place by an A-frame winch on
the Fennica and underwater
remote-operated vehicles.
Shell also will have a
blowout preventer on the
ocean bottom that could seal
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a well with shear arms; drill-
ing mud to plug a blowout;
a second rig to drill a relief
well; and a vessel carrying a
containment dome that could
funnel leaking crude to ves-
sels on the surface.
What can Shell do
without the capping
stack?
Oil-bearing rock is 8,000
feet below the ocean bottom.
Shell received conditional
approval Wednesday to drill
above it.
Top-hole work begins with
a mud-line cellar, an excava-
tion to house the blowout pre-
venter beneath the ocean Àoor,
where it can’t be scraped by
the bottom of a passing ice-
berg. Top-hole work also in-
volves drilling to about 1,300
feet and setting a foundation
for the well to grow in depth.
Shell can apply to drill
into oil-bearing rock when the
Fennica is repaired and in the
Chukchi Sea. Shell expects
that to happen by mid to late
August.
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