RIDGEFIELD — Most area residents are probably familiar with the story of the ill-fated Davy Crockett, beached and broken on the Columbia River shoreline.
Not every languishing boat turns into a multimillion-dollar federal recovery effort, but there are no shortage of mini-Crocketts.
One currently sits on the bottom of Lake River, just downstream of the main access bridge to the south end of the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. The 32-foot cruiser sank Saturday, right alongside a houseboat that had been illicitly towed to state-owned aquatic land just last month.
Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman said the U.S. Coast Guard stepped in to minimize the threat of oil leaking into the river.
The houseboat owner is Lance Balderree, Neiman said.
“The Coast Guard federalized the response,” he said. “They hired a contractor Friday night and took diesel, fluids and pollutants off the boat as it was sinking.”
He said he is planning to work with the state Department of Natural Resources to have the vessel removed from the river bottom. The DNR operates a $1.7 million derelict vessel program, which helps local jurisdictions remove relatively small threats to marine safety or the environment.
“We are going to try to recover (the cruiser),” Neiman said. “It’s going to be a lot harder to do. It would have been easier if it was floating.”
Neiman visited with Balderree last week at the Ridgefield marina while the vessel was still afloat. However, it was emanating a worrying trace of oily discharge.
“We’ve got to get this resolved,” Neiman told Balderree. “We’re just not going to be able to go on this way. I know you’re in a pickle.”
By the weekend, the situation had deteriorated.
Balderree indicated the oil discharge was coming out of the propeller screw shaft of the vessel, originally launched in 1937.
“It hadn’t been run for years,” Neiman said.
Neiman and marine patrol Deputy James Naramore had been called in after Balderree, in a dispute over overdue moorage fees, used the vessel to haul his houseboat out of McCuddy’s Ridgefield Marina and park it along the east bank of Lake River.
The DNR, which maintains state-owned aquatic land, last week issued a 30-day eviction notice for the houseboat. Meanwhile, the state Department of Ecology raised concern about the oily discharge that appeared to emanate from the tow vessel Balderree used to haul the houseboat upstream from the marina.
The sheriff’s office got involved when onlookers reported the houseboat within sight of a bridge accessing the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge.
Balderree told the officers that he felt he had little recourse after McCuddy’s evicted him last month. He worried that he would lose the houseboat previously owned by his brother.
“I hooked her up, took her up the river,” he said.
And there it sits.
In this case, Neiman indicated the value of the houseboat alone should provide the necessary incentive for Balderree to move it off state-owned aquatic land. Other derelicts aren’t nearly so valuable.
“As long as they’re in an established moorage and not leaking foul substances into the waterways they’re not an issue to us,” Neiman said.
He said the marine patrol comes across a vessel that does present a hazard to the environment about three or four times a year. In those cases, he said, the DNR’s derelict vessel program has come in quite handy. The marine patrol will haul away unclaimed recreational boats, hitch them to a trailer and have the load hauled away for disposal.
The DNR then typically picks up the bill.
“It’s certainly the biggest boat that we’ve ever had to deal with,” Neiman said.
