OREGON STATE UP TO BAT IN COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2018
145TH YEAR, NO. 255
SPORTS • 10A
ONE DOLLAR
Warming
drives the
spread of
toxic algae
Researchers see danger
in massive blooms
By TOM JAMES
Associated Press
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Tourist No. 2 relocated earlier this month to the commercial waterfront complex Pier 39.
ASTORIA FERRY
FINDS HARBOR
Tourist No. 2
docks at Pier 39
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
T
he Astoria Ferry Group’s
efforts to get the Tourist No. 2
back operating on the Colum-
bia River are solidifying behind a new
homeport, grant funding and a project
manager.
The vessel was brought to Astoria in
2016 by owner Christian Lint. But aside
from some short stints at the Colum-
bia River Maritime Museum, the vessel
has largely languished in anonymity at
North Tongue Point, an industrial dock
on the eastern edge of the city. A year
ago, the group considered giving up the
restoration until a new infusion of inter-
est and board members brought the proj-
ect off the rocks.
Earlier this month, the ferry moved
to Pier 39, a waterfront commercial
complex along the Columbia where vol-
unteers hope improved access and vis-
ibility will lead to more community
interest.
“We have our own spot now,” said
Cindy Price, a ferry board member and
Astoria city councilor who is running
for mayor. “It has been a challenge to get
things really going until we got here.”
Despite essentially living out of a
suitcase, the group has still gathered
numerous donations from local busi-
nesses and secured grants to help with
the ferry’s restoration, Price said. A
$20,000 grant from the Oregon Com-
munity Foundation will help overhaul
the vessel’s electrical system. Another
Sam Shogren, a maritime heritage consultant, will oversee the restoration of
the Tourist No. 2.
grant from Restore Oregon paid for a
preservation plan on the vessel by Sam
Shogren, a maritime heritage consultant
the ferry group is bringing on board to
oversee the restoration.
“Having completed the preservation
plan, it helped give the board a roadmap
on where to go in the future,” Shogren
said.
The group needs between $2 million
and $3 million to fully restore the ferry
to the Coast Guard’s satisfaction and
build a sustainable operation, Shogren
said. The process will have to be split
into several phases over the coming
years and require a capital campaign
seeking out grants, private donations
and corporate sponsorships.
The final cost for the restoration will
require an inspection of the hull and will
depend on how historically accurate the
ferry group wants it to look, but the ves-
sel has solid bones and a regional his-
tory that lends itself to seeking grants
and donations, Shogren said.
Built in 1924, the Tourist No. 2 oper-
ated as a ferry between Astoria and
Megler, Washington, until it was made
obsolete by the opening of the Astoria
Bridge in 1966. The ferry relocated to
Pierce County, Washington, and contin-
ued running routes until 1995.
See FERRY, Page 7A
‘WE KNOW THAT TO MAKE THIS PROJECT
REALLY SUSTAINABLE, IS IT NEEDS TO
GET RUNNING ON THE RIVER.’
Cindy Price | ferry board member and Astoria city councilor who is running for mayor
SALEM — The words blasted to cell-
phones around Oregon’s capital city were
ominous: “Civil emergency — prepare for
action.”
Within half an hour, a second official
alert clarified the subject wasn’t impending
violence but toxins from an algae bloom,
detected in Salem’s water supply.
Across the U.S., reservoirs that supply
drinking water and lakes used for recreation
are experiencing similar events with grow-
ing frequency. Last year, the Oregon Health
Authority issued a health advisory for Cof-
fenbury Lake at Fort Stevens State Park for
a massive bloom of blue-green algae, the
first advisory for the lake.
The trend represents another impact of
global warming and raises looming ques-
tions about the effects on human health,
researchers say.
“When water bodies warm up earlier
and stay warmer longer … you increase the
number of incidents,” said Wayne Carmi-
chael, a retired Wright State University pro-
fessor specializing in the organisms. “That’s
just logical, and it’s being borne out.”
Technically called cyanobacteria, the
ancient class of organisms that create the
blooms are present nearly everywhere
water is found but thrive in warm, still bod-
ies like lakes and ponds. They also create a
unique class of toxins, the impact of which
on humans is only partly understood.
Long linked to animal deaths, high doses
of the toxins in humans can cause liver
damage and attack the nervous system. In
the largest outbreaks, hundreds have been
sickened by blooms in reservoirs and lakes,
and officials in some areas now routinely
close water bodies used for recreation and
post warnings when blooms occur.
But less is known about exposure at
lower doses, especially over the long term.
Small studies have linked exposure to
liver cancer — one toxin is classified as
a carcinogen, and others have pointed to
potential links to neurodegenerative dis-
ease. But definitively proving those links
would require larger studies, said Carmi-
chael, who helped the World Health Orga-
nization set the first safe exposure standards
for the toxins.
“It’s absolutely certain in my mind that
warming temperatures are going to end up
causing more of these algal blooms,” said
Steven Chapra, an environmental engineer-
ing professor at Tufts University.
Chapra led a team including scientists
from the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology and the U.S. Environmental Pro-
tection Agency in one of the most compre-
hensive studies of the interplay between
global warming and the blooms, published
in 2017.
Because they prefer warm water, higher
summer temperatures and more frequent
heat waves help the organisms. More fre-
quent droughts also cause reservoirs to
be shallower in summer, causing them to
warm faster.
See ALGAE, Page 7A
Marine life a passion for Miami native
Bilingual
outreach at
Haystack Rock
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — For
as long as she can remember,
Andrea Suarez has had a pas-
sion for marine life.
As a child living in
Miami, Florida, much of her
childhood was laced with
days on the beach, exploring
seaweed patches, or enjoy-
ing the occasional day trip to
Sea World. She remembers a
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Andrea Suarez is the new
bilingual coordinator at
Haystack Rock Awareness
Program.
news broadcast of a bottle-
nose dolphin that had washed
ashore. She cried to her par-
ents, begging for them to take
her to the beach, so she could
help push the dolphin back
into the sea.
While Suarez wasn’t able
to save the dolphin that day,
she will have the chance to
protect sea life as a new coor-
dinator for the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program. In a new-
ly-created position, Suarez
will manage the beach wheel-
chair program and take the
lead on all bilingual interpreta-
tion — two new endeavors for
the 33-year-old program.
“When they offered me
the job I couldn’t believe
it,” Suarez said. “Being on
the beach, helping people …
You’re going to pay me money
for this?”
See SUAREZ, Page 7A