The days are numbered for the massive Japanese dock that washed up on an Oregon beach earlier this month. The Oregon State Parks Department announced Tuesday that it's accepted a bid from a Vancouver, Washington salvage company to break apart the dock and remove it.
David Solomon of the Parks Department says the $84,000 demolition was cheaper than towing the dock to a new location. And he says wildlife experts were concerned that re-using the dock would make coastal waters vulnerable to invasive species.
"They really were concerned that there would still be stuff on the underside that was not reachable for that kind of mitigation, and stuff inside within the interior spaces," Solomon says. "So for those reasons we elected not to take that risk."
Solomon says a portion of the dock will be retained as a memorial to victims of the tsunami that set the dock afloat last year.
Separately, the Washington Department of Ecology confirmed Tuesday that a 20-foot fiberglass boat that washed up near Long Beach is, in fact, tsunami debris. The boat and the dock have both tested negative for radiation.
On the Web:
Updates and photos from Oregon State Parks:
http://www.oregon.gov/OPRD/PARKS/agatebeach_dock.shtml
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network
