4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29, 2017
Wreck: The Hero’s weight of about 600,000 pounds presents a challenge
Continued from Page 1A
Cleanup update
The state Department of
Ecology has been working with
Global Diving & Salvage to
monitor and clean up the spill.
Crews are still regularly visit-
ing the ship, which is docked
on the South Fork of the Palix
River near the entrance to Wil-
lapa Bay, to take water sam-
ples and to remove and replace
materials used to contain and
soak up petroleum products
and dirty water.
In mid-March, Global div-
ers explored a section of the
boat that had previously been
inaccessible. They found no
new stores of oil but absor-
bent materials did become
saturated.
Starting around March 17,
the oil-sheen and petroleum
odor started to abate, Depart-
ment of Ecology staffer Linda
Pilkey-Jarvis said in an update
on the Hero cleanup webpage.
Absorbent materials are also
soaking up less oil.
The department plans to
continue taking water samples,
photographing the site, and
monitoring the boat for any
changes, Pilkey-Jarvis said.
Informal approach
“As far as the Hero goes,
there was never a real spill.
There was a sheen,” state
Department of Health Envi-
ronmental Engineer Mark Toy
said.
The Department of Health
has the authority to shut down
an area affected by an oil spill.
However, the agency didn’t
take that step, because the spill
was relatively small, and the
two oyster companies with
facilities close to the boat —
Bay Center Mariculture and
Taylor Shellfish — voluntarily
stopped selling any oysters that
might have been affected.
“We basically tried to deal
with it informally because the
growers were not harvesting.
But if it had turned out that
there was a continuous leak-
age coming from the ship, we
would have formally closed the
area,” Toy explained.
How much is too much?
Food and water safety laws,
and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
offer guidelines about when to
open an area again, but each
situation is unique.
“Sheen can be very mis-
leading about what the actual
concentration is,” Toy said.
Some spills look bad, but aren’t
especially toxic. Some spills do
sicken people, plants and ani-
mals. Others aren’t dangerous,
but affect the taste or appear-
ance of fish and shellfish.
In this case, “The main
issue, as far as when to reopen
an area, isn’t health impacts,”
Toy said. “It’s something
called ‘taint’ — an ‘off’ odor
or taste. We have obligations
under food-safety laws not to
allow adulterated product onto
the market.” Toy said these
undesirable tastes or odors can
be a persistent problem even
the shellfish wouldn’t be dan-
gerous to consume.
For now, the Department
of Health is communicating
with growers and other agen-
cies, and waiting to see what
happens.
“It’s very difficult to make a
subjective call,” Toy said.
Wilson said his company
doesn’t harvest oysters near the
Hero, but they do sometimes
hold product in the water right
downstream from the boat.
“We didn’t take any chances
there,” Wilson said. “We’re
just not going to use this area
for a while.”
Wilson said he thought the
spill “could have been a real
disaster,” if oyster-growers
had not pressed authorities to
remove oil from the boat a cou-
ple of years ago.
“Otherwise, we would have
had stuff streaming out of there
forever. In an old boat, it’s in
everything — the bilge and
everywhere,” Wilson said.
Too many boats,
too little money
The location, funding and
condition of the Hero are pre-
senting an unprecedented chal-
lenge to those charged with
getting it out of the river, said
Troy Wood, derelict vessel
removal program manager for
the state Department of Natu-
ral Resources.
“We will eventually have
to deal with it at some point,”
Wood said. “It’s an old wooden
vessel and old wooden vessels
break down. It would spread
that wreckage.”
In early 2015, “It was
reported to us that it was
ugly-looking, but it’s not
against the law to be ugly,”
Wood said.
The boat’s presumed
owner, Bay Center resident
Sun Feather LightDancer, had
the right to keep his private-
ly-owned boat moored at his
private dock, and the Hero
wasn’t polluting the river then,
so it didn’t qualify for the der-
elict vessel program’s list of
“Vessels of Concern.”
Once it sunk, it made the
list, because it’s illegal to
pollute state waters, Wood
explained.
Owners are responsible
for dealing with their problem
boats, and any damage they
cause, but it doesn’t always
work out that way. There are
about 147 known derelict boats
around the state. Wood’s pro-
gram has limited ability to deal
with these boats.
“We are not a response
agency, and we are the last
resort, and only when funds are
available,” Wood said. The pro-
gram has about $120,000 left
until the next two-year funding
cycle starts in July 2018.
“Those (dollars) would be
for little boats at this point,
because we have so little fund-
ing available, and every option
we’ve explored with the Hero
would exceed our budget,”
Wood said.
Heavy lift
The Hero weighs about
600,000 pounds. Back when it
was plowing through the ice in
Antarctic backwaters, that heft
was an advantage. Now that
the state needs to get it out of
the Palix River before it breaks
into splinters, it’s a problem.
Sometimes, the Department
of Natural Resources can make
a boat float again, or simply
seal up all the big leaks, and put
it on hold until there’s a plan
and enough money to deal with
it. Sometimes, it’s possible to
dismantle a boat and remove
it piece by piece. Due to its
location, the state also consid-
ered towing the Hero away.
But boat is in such a state of
decay, and currents around it so
swift that none of those options
would work.
“Unfortunately, we would
have to raise the vessel,” Wood
said, “but the cost would drain
our account.”
The state also considered
taking it out by land, and dis-
covered that it wouldn’t be
physically possible.
“To get a crane to lift it out
of the hole it’s in — it’s not fea-
sible at this point, because of
the distance to the road,” Wood
said.
With all the obvious options
exhausted, the derelict vessel
staff “(is) considering other
options,” Wood said, but he
didn’t want to say what they
had in mind.
“I would hesitate to go into
it at this point because some of
them are so far outside of the
box that they would be consid-
ered whimsical,” Wood said.
“No idea is too silly.”
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6 PM
A PRIL 6
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Author and Journalist
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A Columbia Forum Presentation
Buzz Bissinger is among the nation’s most honored and
distinguished writers. A native of New York City, Buzz is
the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Livingston Award,
the American Bar Association Silver Gavel Award and
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also was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He is
the author of the highly acclaimed nonfi ction books:
Friday Night Lights, A Prayer for the City, Three Nights in
August, Shooting Stars and Father’s Day.
Buzz has been a reporter for some of the nation’s most
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The New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated; and a co-producer and
writer for the ABC television drama NYPD Blue. Two of his works were made
into the critically acclaimed fi lms: Friday Night Lights and Shattered Glass .
Three more are in active development. Friday Night Lights also served as the
inspiration for the television series of the same name.
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