PORT OF GARIBALDI
AGENDA ITEM
PORT MANAGER REPORT: Washington D.C.
Recap
RECOMMENDED COMMISSION ACTION: NONE
AT THIS TIME
Port Commission
President, Val Folkema; Vice President, Bob Browning; Manager, Kevin Greenwood;
and the Master Chief of Station Tillamook Bay (USCG), Mike Saindon, met on
Thursday, February 21 to prepare talking points for our full day of meetings in
Washington D.C. scheduled for Tuesday, February 26. We have learned to have
additional talking points as most of the representatives and agency people are very
knowledgeable and aware of the Tillamook Bay Jetty System and they like to hear
what else is happening in Tillamook.
At the preparation
meeting on the 21st, we came up with the following talking points to
take to Washington in addition to the continued advocacy of the repair of the Tillamook Bay Jetty system, which has been the county’s #1 priority for over a
decade:
0.
REPAIR
SOUTH TILLAMOOK BAY JETTY. The Port of Garibaldi supports funding $600,000
toward the engineering and survey work to repair the south jetty. The U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE) – Portland District has indicated that they have
current capacity to do this work, but only if it were funded. Over $50MM
annually is contributed to the region’s economy through commercial activity
dependent on marine traffic and bay activity.
I.
SUPPORT
RAMP LEGISLATION. The Port of Garibaldi is supportive of legislation initiated
in part by NW legislators to release the full amount of collected Harbor
Maintenance Trust Funds (HMTF) to USACE for the intended purpose of dredging
and jetty maintenance. Currently, only HALF of the collected tax is released
for its legally intended purpose.
II.
DREDGING
TILLAMOOK BAY BAR. Similar to the dredging effort at Morro Bay in 2009. ERDC
has been monitoring our entry and a possible solution would be to allow the
dredge Yaquina to dig a 40-ft. hole (“sandtrap”) that would absorb the wave
height as a short-term solution. Could be a fraction of the cost and buy
valuable time. Has Morro solution worked?
III.
SUPPORT
U.S. COAST GUARD MISSION. What is the best approach for getting a Water
Analysis and Management System (WAMS) funded? Aids to navigation into Tillamook Bay.
IV.
WAVE
ENERGY BREAKWATER DESIGN. Jetty systems that can have multiple uses, such as
wave energy conductors, are positives.
V.
SITE
CERTIFIED SEAFOOD INSPECTIONS. U.S. Commerce needs to certify seafood
production sites in order to speed up and increase distribution opportunities.
VI.
SUPPORTIVE
OF THE US/CANADA ALBACORE TREATY, BUT AGAINST THE FISHING REGIME PROVISIONS.
“Fishing Regime” is the portion of the Treaty that defines specifics such as
number of boats, quotas, etc. The Regime expired in 2011 and there has been no
treaty in place. More study needs to be conducted to see the economic impacts to the US economy if it were re-initiated. It would be a different story if those fish were landed in
the US, but Canada has not be forthcoming with landing data. (Nancy
Fitzpatrick, Oregon Albacore Commission)
VII.
MARINE
INFRASTRUCTURE. The Port has a $3.0MM pending grant application from EDA to
rebuild our WWII era wharf. Along with a $1.7MM State of Oregon grant, we are
now only $1.3MM away from finishing the road and utility improvements needed to
finish the project.
Oregon Business
Development’s Washington DC Lobbying Firm, FBB Federal Relations, offered to
set up meetings for our visit. Ray Buchegar did a great job of setting up
meetings for a single day which allowed the Port to save considerable funds in
travel expenses. The Port of Garibaldi is highly appreciated of OBDD for
allowing Ray to set up meetings and join us on our full day of meetings.
FEBRUARY 26, 2013
8:30AM
Our breakfast meeting
was with the Executive Directors of three national associations that are
equally supportive of marine infrastructure funding. We met with Gordon
Robertson, American Sportfishing Association; Jeff Gabriel, National Marine
Manufacturers Association; and David Kennedy, BoatUS. All three are supportive
of opening the HMTF to the USACE for repairing jetties and dredging federal
channels used predominantly by recreational fishing and boating groups. There
was a brainstorming session about other groups that might also have a “dog in
the fight” with the intent of bringing all of the affected stakeholder groups
together to speak with a single voice in Washington. One idea included getting
a list of all the “low use” ports that have received USACE funding and
identifying the congressman in that district. There was a feeling that “low
use” ports tend not to be as organized or well-funded and that its difficult
for them to get their collective message heard. The breakfast ended with Ray
looking to convene a work meeting in DC at some point in the future of special
interest groups to begin strategizing on a wider-based advocacy effort.
10:30AM
We had originally
scheduled a meeting with MCPOUSCG, Michael Leavitt, who before achieving the
top Coast Guard enlisted position in the country (E-10), was the Master Chief
in Garibaldi. This was as much as a social call as anything, but we also wanted
to get the chance to find out about opportunities for improving navigation aids
for mariners. Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled due to changes in
Leavitt’s schedule.
This allowed extra
time for us to discuss issues related to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and
the politics in Washington. Amazingly, only 50% of the HMTF that is collected
is actually used for the intended purpose of dredging and fixing jetties. The other
half is used for “deficit reduction”. Ironically, the federal gas tax (the
equivalent tool for funding federal highway projects) only covers 2/3rd
of the actual federal funding; so you could loosely make the case that the
other half of the HMTF is going to fund federal highway projects. Ray cautioned
me, however, that where the other half is spent is very, very difficult to track and at
the end of the day not that important.
12:30PM
We met with O&M NW
Regional Integration Team at USACE Headquarters, located in the General
Accountability Office Building across from the National Building Museum. We met
with Kathie Griffin, Julie Rosa, Mindy Simmons and Mike Ott joined us by phone
from the Portland District. Mindy was originally with the Portland District
before getting the call to HQ and she took the time last summer to go out with
Browning and Saindon to view the damage to the South Jetty. At that time, she
encouraged Browning’s involvement since he’s a commercial fisherman and his
background could be powerful.
As you know, Tillamook
Bay – like most of Oregon’s low use ports – has been zeroed out of the
President’s budget the last few years and with the prohibition on earmarks
clearly entrenched it has been difficult to make a case for low use ports. The
USACE uses over 100 metrics to rank projects; clearly the biggest metric is how
much manufactured product are shipped through various federal channels. They do
not include commercial fish landings in their metrics. We do score a few points
for being a port of “safe harbor” and for being a few feet deeper than a
“shallow port” (the Tillamook Bay entry is authorized to 18-ft.; shallow draft
is considered 14-ft. and less.)
There has been a
recent Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) study on the morphology
of the bar that may provide the USACE with more information about the system.
There is also a $120,000 “capability” (capability means that the project is
high on their radar and – if funded – they’d have the capability to carry out
the project. For example, the USACE has $600,000 capability to conduct the
south jetty survey work; they do not have the capability to actually do the
$30MM south jetty repair. In both cases, money is not available) to place a
buoy outside the mouth to, again, collect additional data that would be
available to the government and mariners alike.
We also spent
considerable time talking about the Morro Bay “sandtrap”. Morro Bay (San Luis Obispo) needed
dredging badly, but the cost to fully dredge their bar was cost prohibitive. As
a bandaid solution, the USACE dug a 40-ft. hole in the highest impact zone to
absorb the incoming breaker energy allowing for mariners to safely enter the
bay. The thought is that the Corps' dredge, Yaquina, sails by Tillamook Bay
several times a year and a similar project could be done for about $1.5MM (total
guess). Mike Ott brought up the issue of dredge disposal sites noting that most
of the old beach reclamation sites on Bay Ocean have since expired. He thought
there could be an ocean disposal solution. We talked a little bit about using
the spoils to reclaim beaches near Rockaway Beach, but not much response to
that. He did say that he would contact Jeff Lillycroth (sp?), at ERDC, about
looking at the “engineering solution for a sandtrap.” There was some interest
in this costing less than the south jetty repair, but we were careful not to
suggest this as a total replacement for the south jetty. Mike was also going to
look into whether the 40-ft. sandtrap could be done under our current
congressional authority (18-ft.). If not, it could take an unfunded inclusion
of the project into the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). A WRDA bill
hasn’t been passed in several years, but there is some interest in getting a
new WRDA passed.
Kathie Griffin talked
about different approaches that the USACE is taking to re-assess projects
including Asset Management Portfolio Act (AMPA) and the Civil Works
Transformation (CWT). The bottom line, however, is that there is a finite
amount of money for several times the amount in projects.
We also talked a
little about allowing “others” to fund or “use” federal jetty systems. Section
214 (private sponsorship) allows for a private interest (I believe this
included local or state governments) to cost share, but as you know this is a
slippery slope. A better example would be the breakwater wave energy concept
that came forward (and left just as quickly) a few years ago from Denmark(?).
The idea being if the jetty (or a modified jetty) could be used for more than
just one use then those costs could be shared by the benefactors. We left with
the following questions…
1. Does Corp have authority to dig the
“sand trap” similar to what was done at Morro Bay?
2. Can private money be used to pay for
this work (and would it have to go through the 214 process)?
3. At what point would the Corps begin
seeking out a dredge disposal site?
4. Can engineering be done as part of
the current ERDC process?
This was a promising
meeting and the Port will be looking forward, hopefully soon, to any information
generated by the meeting.
2:00PM
We travelled to the
Hart Senate Office Building to meet with Senator Merkley’s staffer, Mirvat
Abdelhaq. There was little talk about the RAMP; mainly because all of those
solutions come with big price tags. It did give us a chance to thank U.S
Commerce on the pending $3.0MM award for the Commercial Ave. Wharf project and
for all the support that the Portland District has provided us over the years.
Mirvat (she) was especially interested in talking to Bob Browning about the
US/Canada Albacore Treaty. The Senate approves all treaties and this issue has
been a sore spot for years among American fishermen. Bob did a great job of
representing the hard-core position (i.e. no Canadian fishing ever is US
waters), but then explaining that most understand the need for a middle of the
road perspective. This provided Bob (and the Port) with great credibility. It
wouldn’t surprise me if he’s consulted on some of these issues.
3:00PM
Travelled to the
Dirksen Senate Office Building to meet with Senator Wyden’s staffer, Alex
Hackbarth. Again, after talking about the jetties for a few minutes, Alex (she) zeroed in on the Albacore treaty and Bob did an admirable job explaining the
various sides of the issue. We talked a little bit about the Corps effort to
consider the Morro Bay safety measure and let them know we may be following up
with them. We also talked a little bit about the US Commerce site certification
issues which has made it harder for smaller live crab distributors on the coast
to move their product.
3:45PM
We don’t normally
visit elected officials who aren’t our representatives, but we made an
exception this year. Congressman DeFazio represents several low use ports on
the south Oregon coast (Brookings, Gold Beach, Port Orford, Bandon, etc.) and
has probably made the biggest push among Oregon legislators to find a solution
for the HMTF. We met with his staffer, Karmen Fore, mainly to show support for
those ports and to share our breakfast conversation with her. There was a lot
of interest about directing groups to that possible coalition and potentially
for DeFazio to carry any water that the coalition needed to the Hill.
4:30PM
We were originally
scheduled to meet with Congressman Schrader, but he was whisked away for a
House vote. Instead we talked to his Chief of Staff, Paul Gage, and Legislative
Aid, Zach Stokes. Again, we stressed the aforementioned points and specifically
offered a tour of the jetty system and the Commercial Ave. wharf project to Kurt during his next visit home.
5:00PM
After a busy day, we
took an hour to decompress and discuss our next steps. Ray did an awesome job
helping us through the politics and issues confronting the individual offices.
We flew out the next
day and the Port has since written thank you notes signed by the Commission to
everyone we met. Ray also followed up on most of the technical points with
emails to the same group. This summary report will also be shared with the Port
Commission and other groups in Tillamook County who supported our effort.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Greenwood,
Port Manager
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