PORT ANGELES — A lack of action by Coast Guard officials in Washington, D.C., is delaying the addition of Coast Guard Station Bellingham to the Port Angeles command.
The station was scheduled to come under Group/Air Station Port Angeles’ watch today, but that date has been postponed, Capt. William Peterson, group commander, said Thursday.
“We’re waiting and seeing what’s going to happen,” Peterson said.
No new date was set for the command transfer.
Guardsmen at the commandant level in the Coast Guard’s Washington headquarters are working to make some “determinations” regarding the switch, Peterson said. He did not elaborate.
Under a nationwide effort to unify operations, Station Bellingham — which is responsible for Admiralty Inlet north through the San Juan Islands to the Canadian border — will switch from Group Seattle to Group Port Angeles.
The change will add about 800 square miles of coverage to about 3,100 square miles Group Port Angeles already patrols.
In anticipation of the change, the Coast Guard last month placed a new Bellingham-based 87-foot patrol boat, the Sea Lion, into service under the Port Angeles command.