Contractors finish ballasting Crockett

Contractors on Thursday finished ballasting the 431-foot Davy Crockett, pumping 600,000 gallons of water into enclosed compartments in the stern to better stabilize the vessel.

The process is intended to allow divers to access previously unreachable compartments to determine the location of additional pollutants aboard the barge.

The barge is beached on the north bank of the Columbia River between Vancouver and Camas.

The U.S. Coast Guard is leading a recovery effort that began after it was discovered last month leaking PCB-tainted oil into the river. State authorities said a scrapping operation by owner Brett Simpson weakened the vessel, causing it to buckle and sink.

“Long term salvage plans or timeline estimates would be speculative until more is known about pollutants contained within the compartments of the Davy Crockett,” Coast Guard Capt. Daniel LeBlanc said in a prepared statement. “Parallel to the recovery and salvage operation, an investigation is being conducted into the events leading up to the spill of oil.”

The Coast Guard is tapping $3.5 million from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, a federal fund created by a tax on petroleum products.

Authorities said $1.6 million had been expended as of Friday.