State opens the final chapter on shipwreck.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - One more summer, and the wreck of the New Carissa could be history.

A $22.1 million legal settlement agreed to Tuesday by Oregon's three top elected officials could set into motion the chopping up and barging away of the hulking wreck, seven years after it ran aground on the surf-pounded sands off Coos Bay.

The wood chip freighter, which drifted ashore in a February 1999 storm, spilled 107,000 gallons of fuel that killed shorebirds and contaminated oyster beds.

The governor, secretary of state and treasurer, who comprise the State Land Board, accepted the settlement with the ship's owner, Green Atlas Shipping Co. It averts an appeal by Green Atlas, set to begin next month, of a 2004 Coos County Circuit verdict that the shipwreck amounted to trespassing. The jury awarded $25 million to the state, money that has sat in an escrow fund as the litigation continued, and thanks to interest has grown to $27.1 million.

The Land Board agreed to the smaller settlement, letting Green Atlas keep $5 million, because experts said the job of removing the wreckage would cost that much less - the result of deterioration to the shipwreck that has rendered the hulk lighter and less arduous to remove, said attorney Fred Boss, the chief counsel for civil litigation for the Department of Justice.

Of the $22.1 million that would go to the state, $19 million would cover the New Carissa's removal and the $3.1 million balance would cover the legal costs incurred by the state since the wreck.

Department of State Lands Director Louise Solliday said the plan is to have the contracted work crews and equipment in place for the entire removal job to be done in 2007 during the summer - when the weather is least stormy for such a hazardous task.

Solliday said her department, which has jurisdiction over the New Carissa's removal, would begin negotiating a contract with Titan Marine. The company would send its specially equipped barge to jack up the wreckage from the beach, lifting it above the surf so it could be cut up and and hauled away.

Earlier efforts to get rid of the 660-foot shipwreck proved difficult. In 1999, it was set ablaze to burn off the fuel that threatened shore life. The resulting fireball apparently weakened the hull, which broke in half. The bow was towed to sea, but the tow cable snapped during a storm and it drifted back to a beach near Waldport. The bow section again was dragged off shore, but demolition attempts failed to sink it, so a Navy submarine was summoned to torpedo the floating hulk.

But the stern has remained mired in the sand of a state beach on the North Spit of Coos Bay, attracting beachcombers, starfish, seabirds and sea lions.

Solliday said her goal was to have the terms of the contract worked out by September.

That's when the Legislature would be asked to clear away the final governmental impediment to hauling the New Carissa off Oregon's shore. Specifically, the Legislative Emergency Board will be asked to give the Department of State Lands the authority to spend the $19 million for the shipwreck removal. Without such authority, the money would sit in a state account until the Legislature next meets in full, when it could allocate some or all of the money to other purposes.

That scenario was of concern to Gov. Ted Kulongoski. He said lawmakers' desire to provide relief to the coastal fleets that are expected to lose millions because of limitations on salmon fishing this year could tempt them to grab some of the money intended for the shipwreck's removal.

The governor said he shared that goal of helping distressed commercial fishing fleets but said it was crucial that the state use the money awarded for hauling away the New Carissa shipwreck for just that purpose.

For one thing, he said the state faced a risk of liability should it leave the wreckage in place, where it could cause injury to curiosity-seekers or break loose and damage vessels or other property. The shipping companies, Kulongoski said, could also then point out how the state didn't use the money designated for removal of the New Carissa, so it must not be serious when it tries to force future maritime operators to take responsibility for the cost of hauling off ships that run aground.

"If we don't remove this wreck from the beach, we send a signal to future shipwrecks that we're not serious about getting wrecks off our beaches," Kulongoski said.

The Legislature's top two members, who jointly run the E-Board, both indicated they weren't contemplating the diversion of money from the New Carissa settlement.

House Speaker Karen Minnis, R-Wood Village, "feels the settlement should be used for its intended purpose," spokesman Chuck Deister said.

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said that he had not contemplated using the money for anything other than what the Land Board intended.

"That's why the figure that they used was used," he said, "to remove that wreck, the New Carissa."

CAPTION(S):

A Coast Guard helicopter circles the broken stern of the New Carissa near Coos Bay on Feb. 17, 1999. Flames shoot from the grounded New Carissa off Coos Bay after fuel aboard the vessel was set afire on Feb. 11, 1999. The fuel was ignited to prevent it from leaking into the ocean. Jack Smith / The Associated Press