Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

From the Kitsap Sun:

Legislation that would encourage state officials to deal with derelict vessels earlier than usual was signed Monday by Gov. Jay Inslee. Key provisions of the bill include extending a $1 surcharge on vessel registrations to help pay for the program, authorizing state agencies to board vessels that threaten public health and the environment, changing violations from a criminal offense to a civil infraction to improve enforcement efforts, and requiring owners of vessels longer than 65 feet and older than 40 years to obtain an inspection before selling the boat. The inspection provisions take effect in July 2014.

This legislation was the work of a huge number of people over the last ten years, including calls by this blog for this legislation to pass. Locally, the Tribes, the NW Straits Initiative, The Puget Sound Partnership, county and city governments here on the peninsula, and many environmental groups.

As background on just one perspective of the work that went into this bill, I contacted Alicia Lawver, the public information officer for the Puget Sound Partnership, and asked her what work the Partnership did on this bill. Here’s her response.

Todd Hass of the Puget Sound Partnership testified to the Washington House and Senate about the importance of maintaining derelict vessel program funding by not letting the $1 recreational vessel surcharge sunset.

· The Partnership also testified about the value of requiring sellers of older, large vessels to provide potential buyers with a seaworthiness inspection to help break the typical downward spiral in vessel owner responsibility as vessels age, decline and are downgraded in their use.

· The Partnership also emphasized that this bill is about prevention and not after-the-fact clean up. This bill improves the Department of Ecology’s ability to inspect derelict vessels and remove hazardous materials threats before they pollute Washington waters. But improving regulations will not by itself take care of existing derelict vessels. We need funding to remove these vessels proactively, to complement the improved regulations in ESHB 1245.

· Addressing the backlog of derelict vessels will take legislative commitment. Removing a vessel before it sinks is more advantageous to the state from both a cost and environmental perspective. Attention remains on the budget proposals, which includes $2 million in the Operating Budget for the derelict vessel program and $10 million in the Capital Budget to expedite removal of the more than 230 older, larger, more expensive ships that threaten the health of Puget Sound.

· The Partnership authored an OP-ED after the catastrophe with the ‘Deep Sea,’ then convened the diverse members of the Oil Spill Work Group to evaluate and develop solutions to this problem – which were later advanced by the Department of Natural Resources, which manages the State’s derelict removal program. http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2018416220_guest13okeefe.html

Also our local Marine Resource Committees all had a strong stand and requested this bill happen. It was very bi-partisan this year, because of a major spill on Whidbey Island where the state representatives are primarily Republican. They were supportive of protecting their local shellfish industry. It’s sad that it sometimes takes reaction to fix things, rather than prevention. But we’re happy it got done.

Chris Dunagan reports the rest of the story at:
http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2013/may/20/derelict-vessel-bill-signed-into-law/#axzz2TiCxnKKc

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