Regulate ship-breaking.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Sooner or later, the federal government will have to deal with the growing problem of how to dispose of this nation's growing fleet of obsolete ships.

Until then, Oregon and other coastal states will be forced to establish their own laws and regulations to deal with ship-breaking companies that offer to locate in job-hungry port communities willing to overlook the environmental risks in exchange for good-paying jobs.

The Legislature's Joint Emergency Preparedness and Ocean Policy Committee last week unanimously approved a bill that would require that companies break up ships only in contained dry docks. The bill now goes to the Senate floor, where it should be approved and then sent to the House for swift passage.

Sponsored by state Sens. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, and Becky Johnson, D-Scappoose, Senate Bill 438 grew out of a Virginia company's attempts to locate in in Oregon.

State economic development officials developed a plan, ironically nicknamed Project Glory, that was supposed to bring more than a hundred family-wage industrial jobs to the Oregon Coast. Using an aggressive marketing campaign and incentives totaling $200,000 or more, they recruited Bay Bridge Enterprises, a Virginia ship-breaking company, to a site on Newport's Yaquina Bay. After the proposal aroused fierce local opposition, port commissioners torpedoed the deal.

A private landowner then invited Bay Bridge to locate its operation in Coos Bay, where some local officials enthusiastically greeted the prospect of a new employer hiring as many as 125 workers at wages of up to $30 an hour.

Despite the state's original role in recruiting Bay Bridge, Gov. Ted Kulongoski properly interceded, saying he would oppose any ship-breaking facility that allowed hazardous old ships to be dismantled as they sit in water instead of in contained dry docks. The reason: potential environmental damage from the leakage of hazardous wastes ranging from PCBs to asbestos, and from the introduction of exotic marine species that could harm local rivers and bays.

Under the Verger-Johnson bill, Oregon would become the first state in the nation to require that ship-breaking be done exclusively in dry dock. The measure includes exceptions for dismantling boats of less than 200 tons and for shipwrecks such as the New Carissa near Coos Bay.

Eventually, Congress should establish national standards and, perhaps, even designate federal ship-breaking facilities on each coast. Until then, the Oregon Legislature should approve SB 438 to protect the state's coastal waters.