Barge waste still dead in the water

CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) -- Seven rusted river barges sit in a stagnant stretch of water where Spunky Creek enters the Verdigris River near Molly&#39;s Landing.<br><br>An unused towboat joins the barges just

Saturday, April 24th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6


CLAREMORE, Okla. (AP) -- Seven rusted river barges sit in a stagnant stretch of water where Spunky Creek enters the Verdigris River near Molly's Landing.

An unused towboat joins the barges just north of where Highway 66 crosses the natural waterway near Catoosa.

Many, including sport fishers, say they want the debris cleaned up. But ownership laws, federal procedures and the high cost of removal have kept them in place for years.

"It's nothing but a waste dump," said Wayne Crane of Catoosa, a disabled Vietnam veteran who is fighting to get the items removed. The barges have harmed fish and wildlife, he said.

Some of the barges are above water, while others are buried beneath the murky waves, sinking in the mud. Some have corners or monolithic sections of steel jutting above the surface diagonally.

The banks are lined with a ring of rust, said Howard Schulz of Tulsa. The contamination will kill a fish hung over the side of the boat, he said.

Crane said he is not going to quit.

"I'm going to see to it that something gets cleaned up," Crane said. "If you have a dead car in your yard, the city will start fining you. To me, that's what they should do to the owner of these barges."

But some of these vessels have sat for more than a decade at no cost to their owners.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the water, slow-moving after the corps rerouted the Verdigris River for shipping to the Tulsa Port of Catoosa.

"I'm going to try my best to get it cleaned up," said Jeff Knack, corps Tulsa District project manager. "It does have some red tape involved -- but we'll cut right through that."

Between three people or companies, the corps has determined ownership of all the barges, Knack said. And two of them are working with the corps to clean the mess.

But a scrap metal dealer who bought some of the barges for salvage and left the project unfinished has disappeared, Knack said.

"I have been unsuccessful in finding the person who owns the scrap metal," Knack said.

Ross Adkins, corps spokesman, said one of the owners wants to float a barge downstream for use as a dock.

"We're giving those who we have contacted a certain length of time to get it out of our sight," Adkins said.

State law says the barges could be considered a public nuisance, by annoying others and interfering with a waterway.

But the barges are in the area that the corps manages for the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System. And they do not impede navigation to either the port of Catoosa or Rogers Terminal, since many of them sit at an artificial dead end.

So the corps can not use a law designed to protect shipping, Knack said.

Schulz said an official once threatened to fine him for dropping a piece of paper into the water.

"Yet this stuff can go on and on," Schulz said, pointing at a barge sagging in the mud.

"I used to be able to catch a lot of fish and now they're not here," Schulz said.

Chester Brooks, who works for Tulsa public works, also fishes the waters.

"They call this the port authority's salvage yard," Brooks said. "Out of sight, out of mind."

Crane said fewer deer, armadillos and possum come to the river to drink, and fish tend to avoid the area.

"And when they do come in it kills them," Crane said.

Two of the beached vessels belong to Rogers Terminal, a private shipping dock that sprung up after the corps cleared the path to the port of Catoosa, Knack said.

The corps licensed the terminal in 1980. The terminal is working with the corps on a plan to remove its barges, Knack said.

The towboat is owned between the terminal and Linda Powell, owner of Molly's Landing, Knack said. Plans are to use it for business.

Knack said he has worked on the project for only two months.

Removing a barge could carry a price tag of $80,000, Knack said. And the work could take several months for barges that are buried in silt.

Before the actual work can start, the law requires a 120-day wait before a vessel is considered abandoned. The corps then gets the power to sell or give the barges to somebody to restore or scrap.

Michael Douglas of Tulsa fishes in Catoosa. He said Oklahoma's Department of Environmental Quality should get involved, as he believes would happen in other states.

But DEQ cannot intervene in this case, said spokeswoman Judy Duncan. DEQ is involved where there are disposal or contamination issues that these rusting barges do not pose, she said.

The barges lie outside the port of Catoosa Authority's domain, said Bob Portiss, port director.

Scott Owens, who sells scrap metal, said prices for the metal have fallen from near $175 to around $80 for each prepared ton.

"Someone's going to have to pay to get them out of there," Owens said.

Owens said he understands how people like Crane feel, but removing the barges is a low priority and nobody will pay for it.

"We're kind of dead in the water, no pun intended," Owens said.

Owens said he once wanted to remove the vessels for free when prices were better, but the corps could not give him ownership rights because of the procedural snag.

Crane said he has told the corps, the port authority and others repeatedly that something has got to be done to change the situation in Catoosa.

"That river's been good to me," Crane said, "and I'm not going to let it go to waste."
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