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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018
Washington state prosecuting
owner of sunken vessel Hero
Boat sank on
the Palix River
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
Chinook Observer
BAY CENTER, Wash. —
The Washington state Attor-
ney General’s Office has filed
misdemeanor charges against
the owner of the Hero, a der-
elict research vessel that sank
on the Palix River one year
ago.
Sun Feather LightDancer,
of Bay Center, is charged with
one count of causing a vessel
to become abandoned or der-
elict, and one count of dis-
charging polluted matters into
state waters. The first charge
is punishable by up to 90 days
in jail and a $1,000 fine. The
second is punishable by up to
364 days in jail, and a $10,000
fine.
LightDancer could not be
reached for comment.
The Hero is a 125-foot
wood-hulled boat built for the
National Science Foundation
in 1968. Designed to with-
stand even the toughest condi-
tions, it was used for research
and exploration in Antarctica
until 1984.
According to court doc-
uments, the Port of Umpqua
in Reedsport acquired the
Hero through a federal sur-
plus program in 1984 for
$5,000. A nonprofit founda-
tion used the boat as an edu-
cational and research center
until 1997. In 2000, retired
Coast Guard member and fish-
erman Bill Wechter bought
the Hero. Wechter put it in dry
dock in Portland and made
much-needed repairs. After
the refit, he moved it to New-
berg, where he gave tours and
local cruises until 2003.
The boat sat idle until 2008,
when LightDancer purchased
it, and Wechter towed the boat
to its new home in Bay Center.
In late 2012, a citizen
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Warrenton voters in May will decide whether to renew
a police levy.
Voters asked to renew
Warrenton police levy
The Daily Astorian
Natalie St. John/Chinook Observer
The state Attorney General’s Office is pressing misdemeanor pollution charges against
Sun Feather LightDancer, the owner of the sunken research vessel Hero. The suit against
LightDancer is part of a larger effort to crack down on owners of derelict vessels.
made a complaint to the
state Department of Natu-
ral Resources Derelict Vessel
Program. In 2013, the Depart-
ment of Natural Resources,
the state Department of Ecol-
ogy and the Coast Guard’s
Incident Management Divi-
sion conducted an inspection
to determine whether the boat
was polluting the river.
The boat did not fare well
in Bay Center. LightDancer
allegedly told the inspec-
tors he was using an onshore
power source to keep the
boat’s bilge pump going.
Coast Guard inspectors noted
that “the engine room was
in a state of disrepair, with
parts spread across every sur-
face. Any metal of easy value
has been removed from the
space.” They also documented
around 25 gallons of lube
oil and 50 gallons of diesel
were present on the boat. The
inspectors found a leak in the
hull that was allowing water
into a tank at the front of the
boat. LightDancer was using a
pump to remove water.
The boat sank on March
4, 2017, following a storm.
There was immediate concern
that the boat, which sits just
upstream from the Bay Center
Farms oyster operation, could
damage local shellfish grow-
ing operations or the ecology
of the river and Willapa Bay.
When an oil sheen appeared
on the water the following day,
the Coast Guard and Depart-
ment of Ecology pumped
about 1,000 gallons of oily
water from the boat. They also
used pads and booms to con-
tain and absorb the oil over the
next several weeks.
After determining Light-
Dancer did not have the
means to pay for the cleanup
or remove the boat, the Coast
Guard opened a spill liabil-
ity trust fund for $25,000 to
ensure the work could be done
quickly. The Coast Guard used
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cleanup operation. The fund
does not provide anywhere
near enough to cover cleanup
of the spill and removal of
the boat. Ecology and Natural
Resources experts now esti-
mate the total cost to taxpay-
ers to remove the boat from
the river will be somewhere
between $453,000 and $2.5
million.
The suit was filed by an
environmental
protection
unit that state Attorney Gen-
eral Bob Ferguson formed
to investigate and prosecute
environmental crimes.
Derelict vessels are a per-
sistent problem for Washing-
ton’s ports and environmental
authorities. Ferguson began
filing criminal charges against
derelict vessel owners whose
boats polluted state waters in
2014. This is the environmen-
tal protection unit’s fourth der-
elict vessel case.
Knappa student removed
after threatening remarks
The Daily Astorian
A student was removed
from Knappa High School
Tuesday after making threat-
ening remarks.
The student told an adult
he was going to get a gun,
come back to school and
shoot himself, Superinten-
dent Paulette Johnson said.
“The principal (Laurel
Smalley) was pretty close to
where the student was when
he said it,” she said. “The stu-
dent was gone within maybe
15 minutes.”
The
school
district
removed the student and
called law enforcement, and
the student left with parents to
seek counseling, Johnson said.
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WARRENTON — Vot-
ers in May will be asked to
renew a five-year levy to
help finance the Warrenton
Police Department.
The tax is 28 cents per
$1,000 of assessed property
value, according to the city,
or $56 a year for a $200,000
home. The money pays for a
full-time police officer and par-
tially finances another officer.
The existing levy expires
at the end of June 2019.
The City Commission
voted unanimously Tuesday
night to place the question
on the ballot in the May elec-
tion, since, if it fails, the city
would have another chance
in November. The Novem-
ber election, however, could
have bond issues for Warren-
ton schools and a county jail.
The city has had a police
operations levy since 1999.
Mayor Henry Balensifer
noted that property taxes are
not enough to cover the costs
of the police department.
“This will end in real cuts if
we do not have this police
levy,” the mayor said.
Commissioners
Rick
Newton and Tom Dyer sug-
gested the city may have to
ask voters to increase the
levy in the future to help
the police department keep
pace with the city’s expected
population growth and
development.
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