Coos Bay examined by ship recycler

COOS BAY, Ore. – Spurned by Newport, the ship-recycling industry is looking at Coos Bay as a possible site for dismantling military and other vessels no longer wanted.

Two companies are looking at the southern Oregon port, said Jeffrey Bishop, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay’s executive director.

Newport’s negotiations with one such firm, Bay Bridge Enterprises, fell through last year after a surprise announcement that the Virginia firm would soon be setting up shop in Yaquina Bay.

There was concern of pollution from wastes aboard the ship and over the possibility that the hulls of the ships to be broken up might carry invasive species that could be released into the bay.

Bishop says his agency is working toward ownership of most of the industrial property on Coos Bay’s North Spit and said last week his organization won’t get deeply involved with the companies without community discussions and more information.

Public meetings could start in early March.

“From that, we can establish an open process for assessing whether or not the Port of Coos Bay should, and if so how to, entertain any ship recycling proposals,” he said.

G. Dennis Vaughan of Environmental Recycling Systems says he supports the approach. “I really want this to be a port operation. It’s theirs to have or lose. I don’t want to push ourselves on the port at all,” he said.

Vaughan, based in Seattle, says only that he and investors are proposing two docks large enough to take in tankers or ships up to 900 feet long.

The operation would start with about 100 employees. Vaughan said the docks would be self-contained and that all the water around the ships would be filtered.

“We want to be 100 percent self-contained. Once a ship goes in those doors close behind it,” he explained.

There are about 150 former U.S. military vessels awaiting recycling.

Also, there are hundreds or thousands of privately owned ships, tankers and barges slated for dismantling.