With his signature last Wednesday, Gov. Inslee capped a two-year drive in the Legislature to tackle the stubborn problem of derelict and abandoned ships and boats, which threaten the safety and environmental health of the state’s waterways and much that depends on them: recreation, shellfishing, marine industry and the jobs they provide.
Rep. Drew Hansen of Kitsap County spearheaded the effort by sponsoring House Bill 2457, signed Wednesday, in 2014, and House Bill 1245, which was passed into law in 2013. The undertaking involved both Democratic and Republican legislators and the state Department of Natural Resources, which pushed for the reforms in the bills.
The measures are designed to address the kind of incidents that have generated headlines around Puget Sound in recent years: an abandoned tugboat sinking in Eagle Harbor; a 167-foot ship going under in Tacoma’s Hylebos Waterway, dragging another ship off even keel; and the state seizing a 180-foot hulk off Port Ludlow when its owner misfired on plans to tow it to Mexico.
But the problem is much bigger than that. The news website crosscut.com recently took a look at the larger picture.