COAST WEEKEND: CREATIVE COMMUNITIES PAINT, HIDE, SHARE ROCKS
146TH YEAR, NO. 39
INSIDE
ONE DOLLAR
DailyAstorian.com //
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Children play on a swingset on the beach near Seaside as the sun sets in smoky conditions.
HOOD TO SMOKE
Relay runners hope for a break from the smoky air
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
S
EASIDE — It looks like the smoke
may clear just in time for the Hood
to Coast Relay this weekend.
“We know a lot can change between
now and Friday,” Dan Floyd, the relay’s
chief operating officer, said. “It’s been a
conversation.”
With air quality advisories in effect
across much of Oregon this week, orga-
nizers of the annual race are waiting and
watching conditions before issuing offi-
cial guidance to the more than 19,000
participants registered to run from
Mount Hood to Seaside on Friday and
Saturday.
Active fires in Oregon, along with
wind patterns pushing smoke south from
blazes in British Columbia, have made
this summer one of the smokiest yet —
impacting residents and visitors, and
wrinkling plans for outdoor events.
While Hood to Coast always has to
anticipate and prepare for weather-re-
lated challenges, the relay has yet to face
wildfire smoke as one of them.
See SMOKY AIR, Page 7A
Dennis Thomas works on the temporary bridge across
U.S. Highway 101 for runners participating in Hood to
Coast in Seaside.
Deal reached on Port of Astoria oil cleanup
Prevents pollution
from reaching river
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria still keeps a containment buoy near the southeastern corner of Slip 2. The Port is
negotiating with oil companies to prevent petroleum from seeping into the Columbia River from an old
underground pipe.
The Port of Astoria and oil
companies have reached a concep-
tual agreement on how to clean up
and prevent petroleum contamina-
tion from reaching the Columbia
River between the Port’s piers 1 and
2.
Anna Coates, a natural resource
specialist with the state Depart-
ment of Environmental Quality,
outlined the history of the issue
to the Port Commission on Tues-
day and explained the agreement
to cap and filter pollution out of the
groundwater. There is no cost esti-
mate yet.
“The most important of those is
the permeable reactive barrier,” she
said. “This is the feature that keeps
the contamination out of the surface
water, so that’s the most important
one. And then the other details can
be worked out during the remedial
design phase.”
The area of contamination would
be excavated and filled with a sloped
layer of clay, silt, sand and absor-
bent material topped with a protec-
tive layer of pavement and riprap.
A monitoring well would be dug to
keep track of how the system works.
Coates will likely write a final
record of decision in September or
October, with a work plan created
around the end of the year.
In the late 1990s, an oil sheen
appeared on the Columbia between
piers 1 and 2. The state initiated a
remedial investigation in 2001 and
has since overseen cleanup of the
contamination. The main sources
were identified as a former Exx-
onMobil/Niemi Oil bulk plant, a
McCall Oil & Chemical Corp. pipe-
line, an underground storage tank
previously operated by the Port and
other nearby pipelines.
See DEAL, Page 7A
Coastal caucus discusses
impacts of carbon reduction
Lawmakers
respond to
climate change
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
LINCOLN CITY — The
Oregon Coast is likely to
acutely feel climate change:
rising sea levels, increasing
ocean acidity and higher water
temperatures.
What’s less clear is how
things might change for coastal
communities if the Legislature
adopts a carbon reduction pol-
icy during the 2019 session.
State lawmakers indicated
Wednesday, at an annual eco-
nomic development summit
hosted by the Oregon Coastal
Caucus, that they’re eager take
rural coastal communities into
account.
Wednesday’s
events
focused on carbon emissions
and potential ways the Legis-
lature might seek to implement
a carbon pricing or cap-and-
trade style program to lower
the state’s carbon emissions.
“We’ve come to realize
that to attack this problem, we
have to make our rural econ-
omies front and center,” said
state Sen. Michael Dembrow,
D-Portland, during a panel dis-
cussion on how rural commu-
nities may be affected by a car-
bon reduction policy.
The state’s coast is replete
with natural resources, includ-
ing forests, fields and marsh-
lands, that can sequester car-
bon, Dembrow said.
See CAUCUS, Page 7A
EO Media Group
Ecola Point at Ecola State Park, just north of Cannon
Beach. Lawmakers say they want to take coastal commu-
nities into account as they write a cap-and-trade plan.