Efforts to scrap floating barge lead to sinking and environmental concerns.
The ugly demise of the beached and broken Davy Crockett, now the subject of a multimillion-dollar federal recovery effort, unfolded only after years of neglect.
The former Liberty ship has languished for almost two decades along the north bank of the Columbia River between Vancouver and Camas. At one point, a former owner warned the U.S. Coast Guard that the 431-foot vessel appeared to be at risk of coming loose from its mooring and careening into the nearby shipping channel.
However, little changed except the vessel’s ownership. And, By the end of last year, benign neglect evolved to active dismantling.
Now, dozens of Coast Guardsmen and cleanup contractors are swarming the converted barge. State authorities have attributed the sad state of the Davy Crockett — beached, broken and leaching PCB-tainted oil into the river — to owner Brett Simpson of Ellensburg. They said an apparent effort to scrap the vessel while it was afloat weakened the Crockett to the point that its midsection buckled and sank.
There is nothing inherently illegal about scrapping an old ship, according to Kim Schmanke, a spokeswoman for the Washington Department of Ecology. However, it is illegal to do so without a permit or in a way that pollutes a river or waterway. Simpson had no permit, she said.
“From our perspective, it’s doubtful ship demolition could be done in water or along a shoreline without some kind of solid or liquid waste material getting into the waters of the state,” Schmanke said in an e-mail.
Read the full story here.
