EDITOR’S NOTE — Our most recent previous story on this issue: “Navy holds open house on Ediz Hook submarine-escort plans; concerns voiced by scuba divers, tribes, others,” https://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20150208/NEWS/302089992
PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles has a berth for the Navy — especially if the port can assign it to a bunk.
The Navy wants to moor escort craft near the Coast Guard installation on Ediz Hook. The vessels accompany submarines from Naval Base Kitsap on Hood Canal to the Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
A draft environmental assessment has been prepared for an estimated $16.7 million project to build a pier for berthing seven of these vessels.
Public comment will be taken through Feb. 25 on the draft, which includes three alternatives.
The transport protection system vessels presently tie up behind security fences at the port — when the berths aren’t occupied by commercial ships.
According to Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer, they have been forced to moor elsewhere “two or three times” since they started escort duty in 2006.
If their crews cannot rest, they violate Navy regulations.
The new facility would include sleeping quarters for 20 to 30 personnel and a weapons magazine.
The escorts would include 250-foot blocking vessels, 87-foot patrol boats and 64- and 33-foot screening craft.
Port commissioners said Tuesday they’d prefer the Navy to continue berthing some of its vessels in the Boat Haven marina and others at Terminal 7 in the crook of the Hook.
The Navy, however, has proposed these alternatives:
■ Building a new pier just east of the Puget Sound Pilots station atop an artificial reef used by scuba divers.
■ Extending the current cutter dock at the Coast Guard base, officially called Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles.
■ Constructing a new pier near the tip of the Hook.
The first choice not only would anger scuba divers, Bill Roberts, who said he is an “aquatic recreationalist,” told commissioners; it also could force the pilots to abandon their moorage from which boats ferry pilots to and from ships bound in and out of Puget Sound.
As for the reef, inadvertently created when boulders meant to armor Ediz Hook were dumped 35 to 90 feet deep inside the spit, Roberts called it the only viable habitat for marine organisms in the harbor.
Native American tribes with treaty rights to nearby waters also have expressed concern that pier construction and vessel traffic would disturb nearby eelgrass beds that shelter juvenile salmon.
The Navy hopes to begin building a pier in summer 2016. Construction would take two years, it says.
The Navy has ignored the port’s proposal in 2011 to moor the vessels at port facilities, port officials said.
“It doesn’t involve the environmental risks or the potential impacts,” McAleer said.
“The Navy is supposed to go with existing options if possible,” she said.
Losing the Navy’s current arrangements also would cost the port about $85,000 a year in rental income, she said.
Meanwhile, the port has invested about 1,000 man hours developing its alternative offer, according to McAleer.
“Just to let it go by would be a real shame,” she said, adding that the proposal hadn’t been passed up the Navy line of command.
“We would build a building for them on the south side of Marine Drive,” McAleer said.
“We had some good solutions for them, and the decision-makers never saw our solutions.”
Port commissioners directed Executive Director Ken O’Hollaren to update the idea and resubmit it to the Navy.
Meanwhile, the Navy held an open house in Port Angeles on Feb. 5 on the alternative.
It will accept written comments on its draft environmental assessment sent to Commanding Officer, NAVFACNW, Attn: NEPA PM, 1101 Tautog Circle, Silverdale, WA 98315-1101, or emailed to NWNEPA@navy.mil.
A description of the proposal is available at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-navypier.
Despite the port’s preference that the Navy locate its vessels on the south side of the harbor, it is unlikely to oppose the proposal to build on Ediz Hook.
“We ought to strongly support the Navy presence here in Port Angeles regardless of where it is,” said Port Commissioner John Calhoun.
“We’re not among any groups that might oppose it. We recognize the importance of their being here. That’s an economic engine.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
