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| credit: Steven Lane/The Columbian |
Regular readers of
PNG--and there are a few of you out there--will recall the derelict barge named
Davy Crockett [photo] that spilled oily pollution into the Columbia River in 2011.
{"Davy Crockett"} The wheels of justice have ground on since then. The owner of the barge, Bret A. Simpson, pleaded guilty in July to two criminal violations of the Clean Water Act. Failing to report the discharge of oil is a felony offense. The spill from the partially demolished vessel caused a 295 day clean-up operation that cost taxpayers $22 million in federal money and $680,000 in state funds. Simpson is in the scrap metal business and purchased the barge, a converted liberty ship, in June 2010. He did not remove the thousands of gallons of diesel and fuel oil aboard before illegal salvaging operations began in December 2010. No one at his company, Principle Metals LLC, notified authorities when the hulk began to leak pollutants. An oil slick on the river was finally noticed and reported to authorities. The cracked vessel leaked for at least 40 days before an 850 foot cofferdam was put in place. The State of Washington is imposing a fine of $405,000 on Simpson who is awaiting sentencing in federal court on his plea agreement. An ecology department staffer told reporters the state also intends to bill Simpson for the $680,000 it spent on the clean up. Because Simpson has a record of illegally burying 30 drums of waste oil, antifreeze and spent solvent on his property, prosecutors are asking for a sentence of 13 months. Sentencing is set for March 11th in Tacoma. One positive development from the case is that it spurred the formation of a task force to survey the river for other derelict vessels. The survey located 50 potentially hazardous vessels on the lower Columbia and Willamette Rivers.
