July 22nd, 2015
SEATTLE, WASH.
The Coast Guard 13th District commander, working in conjunction with the Coast Guard Sector Columbia River captain of the port, has established a temporary safety zone and a Voluntary First Amendment Area associated with the arrival of the drilling support vessel Fennica to Portland, Oregon.
The zone, which will remain in effect until the vessel departs, is necessary to allow maximum use of the Columbia and Willamette River waterways by all users consistent with safe navigation and to ensure special interest groups and other mariners are not at risk of injury in the active and dynamic maritime transit areas.
“The Coast Guard is responsible for ensuring the safety, security and environmental stewardship in our navigable waterways,” said Capt. David Berliner, deputy commander, Coast Guard Sector Columbia River and alternate captain of the port. “Everyone’s safety is our top priority.”
A safety zone extending 500-yards in front of the vessel and 100 yards to the port, starboard and astern of the vessel will be in place around the Fennica while the vessel is transiting, and a 100-yard safety zone will be in place around the vessel while moored, at anchor or in dry dock.
Whether intentional or unintentional, interference with deep-draft and other vessels, particularly those with limited ability to maneuver, has the potential to result in collision, grounding, serious injury, death or pollution in the highly sensitive ecosystem of Columbia and Willamette Rivers. The safety zone provides ample space for any vessel to operate near the Fennica’s transit without disrupting safe navigation.
The Voluntary First Amendment Area is a regulated navigation area in the Swan Island Basin from the public boat ramp to a line extending from North Ensign Street southwest across the basin to Vigor Industrial. This location is where the Coast Guard recommends, but does not require, those desiring to express their views on Arctic drilling to freely assemble. It is a no wake area where individuals can congregate without compromising their personal safety or jeopardizing the safe navigation of maritime traffic around them.
The Coast Guard supports freedom of speech and peaceful assembly upon domestic waters as well as ashore. None of the Coast Guard’s actions are aimed at restricting the lawful exercise of these rights. The Coast Guard’s involvement helps ensure safety of those using the waterway both as a forum for self-expression and as a mode of transportation.
The Coast Guard’s focus is on waterway safety. Any action, which disrupts safe navigation, will be appropriately responded to, investigated, and violators may be subject to civil penalties and/or criminal prosecution under applicable Federal law. All persons are required to adhere to federal laws and regulations and violations may result in penalties.
The signed temporary final rule establishing the safety zones and Voluntary First Amendment Area will be published in the Federal Register at http://ift.tt/14oKwbD and will be searchable using key words safety zone + Columbia River.
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Kayactivists Prepare For Shell Icebreaker To Arrive In Portland
The Finnish icebreaker Fennica in November of 2013.
Todd Schwartz
The ship, the MSV Fennica, is part of the fleet Shell plans to use to explore for oil and gas this summer in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. It gashed its hull in shallow waters off the coast of Northwest Alaska on July 3, and will be repaired at the Vigor Industrial shipyard in Portland.
“The Fennica is seen really as the last line of stopping arctic drilling,” said Mia Reback, a community organizer with 350 PDX and the Climate Action Coalition. This is the last piece of the puzzle that Shell needs to legally start their test drilling.”
Reback said non-violent disobedience is being planned for both land and water, inspired by actions that have targeted Shell’s drilling rigs and vessels in Seattle and Bellingham.
The Fennica is critical to Shell’s oil spill response plan and is carrying a key piece of safety equipment called a capping stack. Capping stacks are high-tech plugs, weighing up to 100 tons, that can be used to contain a well blow-out when other systems fail.
A capping stack eventually helped plug BP’s well during the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
A sign protesting Royal Dutch Shell's oil exploration in the Arctic.
Amelia Templeton / OPB
At a rally Saturday, Reback encouraged people to sign up to be “kayaktivists.” About 100 people gathered holding signs that read “Shell No” and “Shut The Gates of Shell.”
Senator Jeff Merkley attended the rally and briefly addressed the crowd. Merkley introduced a bill on July 16 that would prevent the government from renewing and issuing new leases for oil and gas in the Arctic.
Merkley said he is concerned about the consequences a spill could have in the pristine Arctic environment, but that he was also driven by climate change.
“If we are going to address global warming, we have got to leave 80 percent of the fossil fuel reserves that we have identified in the world in the ground,” he said. “We should not be opening up new areas to drilling like the arctic.”
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley attends a rally opposing oil drilling in the Arctic.
Amelia Templeton
Shell did not respond to a request for a comment about the protest, but the company has said it plans to begin exploratory drilling in the arctic the third week in July and does not expect the repairs to cause a delay.
Vigor Industrial, which will be repairing the Fennica, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But the company appears to be positioning itself to do more work with Shell and other energy companies.
Vigor recently purchased and installed the largest dry dock in North America, and acquired the Seattle shipbuilding company Kvichack.
“With Kvichack on board, we also see enormous opportunity to strengthen or role in supporting offshore oil and gas operations in the Arctic,” Frank Foti, Vigor’s CEO, wrote in a press release earlier this year.
The merger allowed the company to “expand our offerings for building offshore support vessels, oil spill response vessels and systems, modules, rigs, terminals, and related structures,” according to Foti.
Vigor employs 2,500 people in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska, according to the company’s website.
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Ice-classing Experts Ready for the Arctic
Not only are Vigor’s facilities geographically accessible to Alaska Arctic waters, Piscitello said, Vigor is an ice-classing expert. Its subsidiaries have been supporting Arctic and near Arctic fleets for the past century from fishing vessels to Coast Guard icebreakers. Shell’s exploratory operations off the north coast of Alaska have presented a new opportunity for Vigor to use its expertise. Vigor has serviced both of the two rigs at the heart of Shell’s project and nearly half of the 21 support vessels involved.
“Shell has been an unbelievably good partner to work with,” said Piscitello, “from the engineers to division presidents.”
Recently Vigor completed work on the Kulluk, a 266-ft by 230-ft ice-classed semi-submersible drill rig, and the Noble Discoverer, a 512-ft ice-classed drill ship. Both vessels left Vigor’s Seattle facility bound for the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in late June. The work included extensive environmental and safety upgrades. The Kulluk now operates with zero discharge and the Discoverer complies with the strictest air standards in the world. Vigor installed six EPODS on the Discoverer, one on each engine, which are essentially large catalytic converters removing harmful emissions.
“We deployed 500 people to work on the Discover project alone,” said Fosheim. “We were able to perform six months of work in ten weeks.”
Other vessels Vigor serviced for Shell’s Arctic exploratory project include the Klamath, which Vigor converted from a tanker barge to an ice-classed oil spill response vessel, and the Arctic Challenger which Vigor is converting from a deck barge to a containment system vessel. In the Portland yard, Vigor serviced the Fennica and Nordica, two ice-classed offshore support vessels owned by Arctia Offshore which will be joining Shell’s flotilla.
“Ten to 15 percent of revenues over the past year have been derived from Arctic work,” said Piscitello. There was a big push to prepare for work in the Arctic this year and last, he explained, so that percentage may drop in the next year. However, “looking into the future we expect significant growth in this area.”
Vigor is also a large part of the effort to maintain U.S. icebreaking capabilities in the Arctic. When Vigor purchased Todd Pacific Shipyards it took over the yard’s contract to service the Coast Guard's only operational icebreaker, USCGC Healy, as well as the repair and modernization of one of the Coast Guard’s two inoperable heavy icebreakers, the Polar Star. A $56m overhaul of the Polar Star is now underway at the Seattle facility in order to return it to service in 2013.
The agency’s other heavy icebreaker, the Polar Sea, has been out of service since an engine failure in 2010. Vigor Industrial gave testimony to Congress at the end of 2011, saying that the Polar Sea could be restored to fully functioning status for a decade or more for about one percent of the cost of a new ice-breaker. Vigor estimated that it would take two years and $11m to replace the Polar Sea's power plant and bring it back to operational status. This is compared to an estimated ten years and $800m to $1b required to build a new heavy icebreaker.
Plans to scrap the Polar Sea were very narrowly avoided late last June when the Coast Guard agreed not to begin dismantling the ship for at least the rest of the year while other funding is sought.