Butt out!

Portland-based opposition to our port's plans is about greed

Why is the Columbia River Steamship Operators Association obsessed about the Port of Astoria's plans? Good question.

The CRSOA appeared at last Wednesday night's meeting of the Port of Astoria Commission, to oppose the port's plan to create a new home for the Columbia River Bar Pilots and its helicopter.

The bar pilots' prospective installation on Pier 3 is a key element in the port's growing marine services hub. For the bar pilots, the helicopter's placement means greater efficiency. And for those of us who care about safety and the environment at the mouth of the Columbia River, this plan also carries meaning.

Opposition to this eminently sensible scheme is part of the CRSOA's campaign to stifle the Columbia River Bar Pilots' request for an 18 percent rate increase. Substantiation of that rate increase has many elements. One of them is that the pilots based here are losing out to other pilotage organizations in the recruitment of qualified candidates at the very moment when there will be high job turnover. Another element is the helicopter, which has been in a trial stage for the past two years.

Unbenownst to most of us, there have been some near disasters in coastal waters near the mouth. The bar pilots' timely presence in those situations has averted calamity. In one situation, a disaster of the sort that afflicted the New Carissa was forestalled. The helicopter's role in those incidents was pivotal. By moving the helicopter's base from the Coast Guard Air Station to the pier, the pilots will have even quicker access to ships at sea. By boarding these ships further out from the bar, the pilots add a measure of reliability to foreign crews that are increasingly inexperienced.

We who live at the mouth take the bar pilots for granted. The reality is that they earn their fees by going out in all weather to bring ships across the most dangerous continuously navigated river bar in the world.

The CRSOA is being paid to oppose the bar pilots' fee request. This resistance is a myopic, greed-based venture. We who reside near the estuary cannot afford to let them win.

 

The Portlanders whom the CRSOA retains are inimical to the broader public interest in environmental safety at the river's mouth. And by butting into the business of the Port of Astoria and the city of Astoria, the CRSOA resembles a plantation owner from out of town who is determined not to let the lowly servants get big ideas about self determination and independence.