Pier 4 fulfills its ‘Quest’

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Much is said about Astorias location at the mouth of the Columbia River, where it meets and says goodbye to all ship traffic heading up and down the worlds fourth most voluminous river.

That was part of the reason National Response Corporations subsidiary, NRC Environmental Services, moved one of its vessels the multipurpose offshore vessel NRC Quest into Tongue Point, becoming one of the Port of Astorias newest customers on Pier 4.

We had a boat in Astoria probably 10 years ago called NRC Columbia, said NRC President Stephen Candito, adding that it moved to Ferndale, Wash., to perform containment for ConocoPhillips oil refinery.

The 144-foot, 8-year-old NRC Quest is a converted multi-purpose offshore vessel used primarily to help clean up oil spills and assist in other marine disasters.

It is a nondedicated vessel, though, available for other services such as salvaging, offshore power generation projects and even firefighting. A former offshore supply vessel in the Gulf of Mexico, it can carry up to 600,000 pounds.

Its a very large, seagoing pickup truck, said Rob Huston, who works marine operations for NRC.

The NRC Quest?includes a four-point mooring system with 4,000-pound anchors to increase its stability. Cables under the vessels false deck operate the anchors at the bow and stern.

There are two 320-barrel tanks for carrying the recovered oil, although any larger amount would bring in cascading resources barges, bladders and other land-based resources. On deck are 5,000- and 20,000-pound cranes that can lift salvaged material or the containment booms, which are usually stored on land and driven to work sites upriver.

Its a good midpoint between Seattle… and northern California, which is our next big operational base, said Candito about the location at Tongue Point. We dont have any similar sized vessels in Portland, but we have other marine and spill response equipment.

The NRC Columbia is currently based in Seattle, Wash., the NRC Cape Flattery in Neah Bay, Wash., the Trident I in Eureka, Calif., the NRC Pebble Beach in San Francisco and the NRC Patriot II in Long Beach, Calif.

From those bases, we can get anywhere, said Candito, who added that the company needs the capabilities to reach an oil spill, wherever it is on the West Coast of the United States.

The NRC Quest has about a 200- to 300-mile operational area and can stay underway for 60 to 90 days.

Most of its clients are shipping companies. Every ship coming into American waters is required to have a response plan established with the U.S. Coast Guard, including a contract with companies like NRC?to respond to disasters.

They have to have an approved plan for every Captain of the Port zone they operate in, said Lt. Ryan Brady, who inspects vessels including the NRC?Quest for Sector Columbia River.

NRC also responds to calls for help from parks and ecology departments and the Coast Guard.

Once the vessel gets its stability approved by the Coast Guard, it will be able to start crewing and performing operations within weeks. It has berths for 20 people but usually has a crew of five. NRC?periodically uses students from Tongue Point for labor.

Its a great opportunity for students to get on board, said Huston.

Property Manager Mike Weston said the NRC?Quest is a small piece in starting to grow the tenent base at Tongue Point. His main challenge is Tongue Points shallow water the area around Pier 4, at about 24 feet, is the deepest in the entire facility, which includes five piers owned by the Port.

In the long run, if we had more depth, wed get more ships, said Weston, adding that cost of dredging out more than 242,000 cubic yards of material per slip to bring the depth to 35 feet could cost millions.

The sediments at Tongue Point also contain toxins making them unsafe for dredge disposal, according to a report by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The contamination dates back to when the U.S. Navy was based at Tongue Point.