146TH YEAR, NO. 207
ONE dOllAR
DailyAstorian.com // WEdNEsdAY, ApRil 17, 2019
Port
looks for
help on
Pier 2
Commission approves
$250,000 for engineers
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
photos by Katie Frankowicz/The daily Astorian
Visitors pause to take in the view at Haystack Rock last Friday.
Erosion takes a bite — or
two — from Haystack Rock
Protecting the
famous sea stack
‘WE DON’T KNOW
YET WHAT WE’RE
GOING TO GET INTO
WHEN WE START
INTRODUCING
OUR APPLICATION
FOR PERMITS.’
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
C
ANNON BEACH — A boy picked
up a chunk of stone and started
methodically smashing barnacles
in the protected marine garden at Hay-
stack Rock.
As he hit the small creatures and
pummeled the rocks they lived on last
Friday before he was told to leave the
garden, he was unwittingly mimick-
ing the natural forces that are slowly
reshaping and could eventually erase
the massive landmark behind him.
Geologists predict Haystack Rock
will erode away in the next 2,000 to
3,000 years, but volunteers and staff
with the Haystack Rock Awareness
Program say the rock is already chang-
ing in front of their eyes.
Falling rocks — including one chunk
approximately the size of a pickup truck
— have prompted extra precautions for
visitor safety.
“What they were seeing in the last 12
months is much more than we’ve ever
been alerted to before,” said Dawn Har-
ris, visitor services manager for the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s Oregon
Coast National Wildlife Refuge Com-
plex, which includes Haystack Rock.
New signs about rockfall hazards
will go up when awareness program
staff are on site. The Fish and Wildlife
Service will keep a closer eye on the
ancient sea stack during aerial surveys
of protected rocks, reefs and islands.
Last year, huge chunks sheared
The Port of Astoria Commission on
Tuesday approved spending more than
$250,000 to investigate an ultimate fix
for the west side of
Pier 2, a badly dete-
MORE
riorated dock where
fishermen
deliver
INSIDE
their catch and where
port
a seafood-processing
Commission
warehouse is sinking
fixes security
because of a failing
truck snafu
seawall.
Page A7
Stephen Whitting-
ton, an engineer with
KPFF
Consulting
Engineers, said the main issues are dete-
rioration and a failing sheet pile bulkhead
causing the warehouse to slowly sink.
“The warehouse building is just a mat-
ter of two steps from that bulkhead wall,”
he said.
The solution could include reusing
and replacing parts of the existing bulk-
head, and possibly moving it farther out
into the water, he said. The move would
be initially expensive but could stabilize
the building while eliminating the need to
maintain much of the deteriorating tim-
bers under the dock.
KPFF’s investigation will cost just
Jim Knight | Port of Astoria’s
executive director
Environmental interpreter Alan Quimby, right, points out spots where recent
erosion and rockfalls have occurred on Haystack Rock.
FALLING ROCKS — INCLUDING ONE
CHUNK APPROXIMATELY THE SIZE OF
A PICKUP TRUCK — HAVE PROMPTED
EXTRA PRECAUTIONS FOR VISITOR SAFETY.
away from Haystack Rock’s southern
and northern sides, mostly landing on
ledges beyond or above where visitors
congregate. Dark patches and trenches
where the rocks fell away are visible on
the sea stack’s face.
“We hear rocks falling every day,”
said Alan Quimby, an environmental
interpreter for the awareness program.
Nesting birds often disturb small
rocks up top, he said, but recent rock-
falls include some of the biggest he has
witnessed in years. He didn’t see the
pickup truck-sized rock hurtle to the
ground, but he heard it: a roar and crash
like a bomb blast.
over $252,000, including a $60,000 con-
tingency, and take eight to 10 months to
produce a proposal. The Port has esti-
mated another six months to a year for
permitting the project.
“We’re going to work to get to the
most feasible options very quickly, pres-
ent the pros and cons of these things,
how much things might cost,” Whitting-
ton said. “We’re going to look at ways to
stage it hand in hand with your funding.”
Jim Knight, the Port’s executive direc-
tor, said he foresees the biggest permit-
ting challenges with the National Marine
Fisheries Service. The federal agency
reviews applications and provides in-wa-
ter work permits between November and
February, when fish migration is at its
lowest, to lessen the impact on endan-
gered species.
“We don’t know yet what we’re going
to get into when we start introducing our
application for permits,” Knight said.
See Haystack Rock, Page A5
See Port, Page A7
COLUMBIA FORUM
Doctor wants you to pay attention to your skin
A war on melanoma
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Dr. Sancy Leachman is
waging a war on melanoma.
Midway through her
talk at the Columbia Forum
speaker series at Baked
Alaska on Tuesday night,
she paused and asked who
in the audience had ever had
skin cancer.
More than half of the
people raised their hands.
It didn’t seem to surprise
her.
Leachman is the chair of
Oregon Health & Science
University’s
department
of dermatology, as well as
director of the Melanoma
Research Program at the
Knight Cancer Institute. She
knows what cancer in Ore-
gon looks like.
Skin cancer is already
one of the most common
forms of cancer in the United
States and melanoma is the
sixth-most common can-
cer diagnosed. Among the
states, Oregon and Wash-
ington are way up there with
some of the highest rates of
melanoma.
Among Oregon counties,
Clatsop County ranks 12th,
Leachman said.
But the good news is that
it’s a cancer that is out in the
open. When caught early,
survival is very likely.
“All you need to do is
look,” Leachman said.
The war on melanoma
is not just a philosophical
concept, it is also part of a
concentrated public rela-
tions push and research
effort by OHSU to get Ore-
gonians interested in pre-
vention, early detection and
treatment.
Leachman is the principal
investigator. A campaign to
Katie Frankowicz/The daily Astorian
See Forum, Page A7
Dr. Sancy Leachman with Oregon Health & Science University
spoke about skin cancer and her war against melanoma.