The owner of a derelict barge that leaked oil
into the Columbia River and triggered a $20 million cleanup has been charged
with two felonies, the U.S. Attorney’s Western Washington
district announced Thursday.
A federal grand jury indicted Bret A. Simpson
of Ellensburg on charges of unlawful discharge and failure to report — both
violations of the Clean Water Act. He could face up to five years in prison and
hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines if convicted.
After purchasing the 430-foot barge Davy
Crockett in 2010, federal prosecutors allege that Simpson attempted to scrap
the vessel without first removing thousands of gallons of oil and fuel he knew
was on board. The vessel began to break in early December, leaking oil into the
Columbia River , according to the indictment.
Simpson, who owns Principle Metals LLC, halted
the scrapping operation, according to the indictment, but never reported the
leak to federal authorities. In January, river debris caused the converted
World War II Liberty Ship to buckle even more, partially sink and release
additional oil and pollutants into the river.
 |
| Davy Crockett, shown in an aerial view last March, was surrounded by a cofferdam and dismantled in place |
The U.S. Coast Guard then issued an order for
Simpson to remove visible oil and salvage equipment from the vessel. He
complied, according to the indictment, and authorities believed the Davy
Crockett was no longer a pollution risk.
But later that month, the state Department of
Ecology traced an oil sheen 14 miles upstream to the barge. That’s when federal
authorities stepped in and took over the cleanup.
Officials initially hoped to take the vessel
out of the river before dismantling it. But local shipyards balked at accepting
the crippled vessel, so authorities decided to take it apart, piece by piece, where
it sat on the north bank of the Columbia River
near Camas.
Led by the Coast Guard, Washington State
Department of Ecology and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, crews
went to work building a metal cofferdam around the broken barge to keep
pollutants from spreading. Workers pulled almost 4.5 million pounds of steel
from the site during the next seven months, extracting the last major piece of
the barge in late August.
The cleanup didn’t end then. Crews are still
removing contaminated sediment and oil left in the footprint of the large
vessel. They’ll also have to remove the cofferdam. That process is still on
track to be finished later this fall, Coast Guard Petty Officer Shawn Eggert
said Thursday.
Project leaders have characterized the Davy
Crockett removal as a complex, labor-intensive operation. Rear Adm. Keith
Taylor, commander of the 13th Coast Guard District, welcomed Thursday’s
indictment.
“The vessel was abandoned by Mr. Simpson, forcing
an extensive emergency response encompassing eight months and costing millions
of dollars.” Taylor
The operation’s $20 million cost will be
covered by the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Coast Guard officials
had said previously that the government would likely seek at least some
reimbursement from Simpson.
If convicted, Simpson faces up to five years in
prison and a fine of as much as $250,000 for not reporting the oil release to
authorities. The penalty for the illegal discharge is up to three years in
prison and a fine of $5,000 to $50,000 per day of the violation, according to
the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Simpson will be arraigned on Oct. 14 in U.S. District
Court in Tacoma
Source: The Columbian. By Eric Florip. 29 September 2011
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