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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018
Washington state man arrested after car chase
Allegedly exceeded
speeds of 100 mph
during 15-minute chase
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
A Buckley, Washington, man allegedly
led police on a roughly 15-minute, high-
speed car chase from Gearhart to Astoria
on Sunday morning.
An Oregon State Police trooper
After spotting a potential seat
then caught up with the car in
belt violation, a Clatsop County
Astoria near the New Youngs
sheriff’s deputy attempted to
Bay Bridge. The car eventu-
ally made a hasty right turn onto
stop a silver Pontiac Grand Am
Bond Street and pulled into the
on U.S. Highway 101. Ricardo
Pig ’N Pancake parking lot.
Allen Lopez, 24, then allegedly
Ricardo
Police arrested Lopez with-
sped north on the highway with a
Allen Lopez out further incident. He was
female passenger.
charged with attempting to
The car allegedly exceeded
speeds of 100 mph, and the deputy elude police with a vehicle and reckless
stopped the pursuit within a few seconds. driving.
State agency wants to boost dam inspection authority
Several changes
considered by
state regulators
Multnomah Falls viewing
platform back open after fire
PORTLAND — Multnomah Falls’ lower viewing platform
has opened to the public for the first time in over six months.
The Oregonian reported the platform opened on Monday.
The viewing platform, which sits at the base of the falls, was
closed in September by the Eagle Creek Fire.
The blaze swept through the Columbia River Gorge and
covered nearly 49,000 acres.
Firefighters protected the 1925 lodge from the flames, and it
reopened in November.
Many gorge destinations, including most trails in the burned
area, were closed. Authorities haven’t set a timeline for when
the trail to the falls’ upper viewing platform will reopen.
The upper platform remains intact.
Washington Gov. Inslee signs
package of voter-access bills
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday signed a
package of bills aimed at increasing voter access in Washington
state, including a measure to preregister 16- and 17-year-olds
and another that allows in-person voter registration to occur the
same day of an election.
“I’m proud of our state for making it easier to vote, not
harder,” Inslee told the crowd of students and other supporters at
Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington, where the bill sign-
ing ceremony was held.
Under one of the measures , starting on July 1, 2019, peo-
ple can preregister to vote starting at age 16, though they won’t
be added to the list of registered voters until the next election at
which they’ll be 18.
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Laws governing dam safety
in Oregon have become out-
dated, prompting state regula-
tors to seek upgraded authority
to inspect and order repairs to
the structures.
In the next legislative
session, the Oregon Water
Resources Department plans
to ask lawmakers to revise
dam safety statutes that were
originally written nearly 90
years ago.
The ability to enter prop-
erty without a warrant to con-
duct dam inspections is one
request the agency is consid-
ering, said Racquel Rancier,
senior policy coordinator for
the department.
About a dozen dams in Ore-
gon haven’t been inspected in
recent years because the land-
owners denied entry to their
property, said Keith Mills,
the department’s dam safety
engineer.
Oregon has jurisdiction
over dams that are at least
10 feet high and store more
than 9.2 acre-feet of water, he
said. The state inspects 969
such structures, while the fed-
eral government inspects 285
dams.
More than 25 percent of
state- and federally-inspected
dams in Oregon are rated as
high or significant hazards,
NORTHWEST BRIEFS
Washington state barge company
fined over fertilizer spills
Capital Press
An excavator and a motorboat are used to break a log jam in April 2013 above the Three
Mile Dam on the Umatilla River north of Hermiston.
which is based on their poten-
tial to cause lost life and prop-
erty damage, rather than phys-
ical condition.
Following
are
other
dam safety laws under
consideration:
• Landowners may be
required to obtain state per-
mission to modify or remove
dams under the supervision
of an engineer, to ensure such
changes are done safely.
• The agency may impose a
requirement for people build-
ing lagoons — such as those
storing manure or wastewater
— to submit their final designs
before starting construction.
The department now lacks
authority for structures that
don’t involve water rights.
Currently, the state must
automatically schedule an
administrative hearing when
dam repairs are needed,
which the agency considers a
time-consuming process that
could endanger public safety.
The agency may instead
require the dam owner to get
an engineering analysis of the
structure without scheduling
a hearing, or to hold a hearing
only if the owner objects to the
repair plans.
Under another proposal, the
agency may order the immedi-
ate correction of unsafe condi-
tions at potentially hazardous
dams by reducing water levels,
opening valves or taking simi-
lar actions.
“That is something we
can’t currently do if we know
it needs to be done,” Rancier
said.
Imposing civil penal-
ties for dam safety problems
would provide an intermedi-
ary approach to induce needed
repairs, rather than the only
current option of imposing an
order, she said.
“They really only provide a
hammer,” Rancier said of cur-
rent laws.
At this point, these ideas
are only in draft form and will
be refined based on feedback,
she said.
VANCOUVER, Wash. — The state Department of Ecol-
ogy has fined a Vancouver barge company $18,000 for spill-
ing 40,000 gallons of fertilizer in the Columbia and Snake riv-
ers in April.
The Columbian reported Monday that state investigators
found two of Tidewater Barge Lines Inc.’s steel tank barges
weren’t adequately maintained and allowed urea ammonium
nitrate — a liquid fertilizer known to be corrosive to steel —
to spill on three separate occasions.
The company is required to prevent future spills and sub-
mit to the department an annual comprehensive corrosion
management plan for its barges.
Tidewater has 30 days to pay the fine or appeal to the
state’s Pollution Control Hearings Board.
Attempts to contact the company for comment were
unsuccessful.
— Associated Press
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