Marina Dock Age

The state of Washington’s waterways have more than 200 abandoned vessels, according to an April 15 Three Sheets Northwest report.

Local marina operators and government agencies inherit the headaches from derelict and abandoned boats that create environmental hazards and a costly mess to deal with them.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which runs Washington’s Derelict Vessel Removal Program, has disposed of 22 boats this fiscal year as of mid-April, compared with 17 or 18 boats total each of the previous three years. DNR expects that number to reach almost 30 by the end of the fiscal year in June.

Melissa Ferris, who runs the program, attributes the increase to a combination of factors, including additional funding that has made it possible to deal with more boats, the economy, and the weather over the winter.

More boaters are anchoring their vessels to save on moorage costs, but those anchored vessels tend to be checked on less often and are more exposed to the elements, Ferris said. Consequently, higher numbers of boats run aground over the winter due to windstorms.

Since the program’s inception in 2003, 250 decrepit boats have been removed from the waterways. Boaters fund the Derelict Vessel Removal Program through a $3 annual boat registration fee and a fee of $5 charged to owners of boats that are registered out of state but kept in Washington.

Boats dealt with in the program are usually demolished after being stripped of metal and any other materials that can be recycled or sold.

With unregistered boats, DNR will put a notice on the boat, as required by law, and place notifications in the newspaper and on its Web site. If the owner doesn’t come forward in a certain designated time period, the boat becomes the property of the state.

When an abandoned boat owner is known, attempts are made to contact the owner, as is the case with a 40-foot sailboat dumped at the Port of Brownsville Marina. Its owner will likely do nothing to retrieve the vessel, and the port authority will have to pay the $14,000 cost to remove and dispose of the boat. It will submit a bill to DNR for a 90 percent reimbursement.

DNR can then go after the boat’s owner to recoup expenses, but Rowland said, “Whether the Derelict Vessel Program will ever recover its money from these people is very doubtful.”