NEAH BAY — The Strait of Juan de Fuca west of Dungeness Spit will be without a rescue tug until November — and possibly until after January — the state Department of Ecology announced Thursday.
The department rejected a bid by Crowley Maritime Corp. of Oakland, Calif., to place a tug at Neah Bay for $22,500 a day.
“Unfortunately, the bid was too high,” said Dale Jensen, who manages Ecology’s spills program.
“If we had accepted it, we would have been in the position of spending nearly all the money earmarked for the tug in three months — with some of the worst winter months to come.”
Foss Maritime Services of Seattle had contracted with Ecology to put a tug at the mouth of the Strait for $6,000 a day, or $1.4 million a year.
Since the 2004-05 season, that vessel had been the 8,200-horsepower, 150-foot-long Lauren Foss.
But Foss elected not to renew the contract it first signed in 2000, claiming a shortage of tugs in the Northwest.
Tugs sent to Gulf Coast
That shortage was caused by a high demand for tugs on the Gulf Coast, where they are employed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, said Fred Felleman, Northwest director of Ocean Advocates.
The group is a national nonprofit specializing in maritime safety.
Tugs also are being lured to Russia and the Middle East by attractive contracts, he said.
Felleman and Chad Bowechop, ocean policy adviser for the Makah Tribal Council, attended Thursday’s quarterly meeting in Portland of a regional response team of federal and state officials from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
Federal organizations included the U.S. Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce and Environmental Protection Agency.
“Clallam County has one of the longest stretches of shoreline of any county in the state,” said Felleman after the meeting.
“It needs a better long-term solution.”
Bowechop agreed.
Risk is high
“The current market forces have priced the state out of coverage,” he said, adding that the Makah want a tug stationed at Neah Bay year-round.
Ecology didn’t minimize the risk in a news release it issued Thursday.
“Winter storms present a higher risk of oil spills from the more than 7,000 tankers and cargo ships traveling through the strait each year,” the department said.
“Cargo ships can carry up to 1 million gallons of cargo oil, and oil barges or tankers can carry up to 33 million gallons of oil.”
Although the Lauren Foss will be elsewhere during September and October, Foss has promised Ecology to station a rescue tug at Neah Bay during November and December.
However, the state must find another provider for January, March and April.
Felleman said the Coast Guard is in the last stages of making rules on salvage and firefighting. It could solve the problem by requiring the shipping industry to pay for a rescue tug at Neah Bay.