Bellingham (Port)

Latest news

Horizon Fairbanks ship leaves Bellingham for good

ELLINGHAM The Horizon Fairbanks, which became a central figure on Bellingham’s waterfront as it sat idle for the better part of a decade, left town for good in the pre-dawn hours Monday. The ship was towed out of Bellingham just before 4 a.m. April 25, marking the end of its stay at the Bellingham Shipping Terminal, which started in 2007. The Port of Bellingham had anticipated its departure some time this month — word had it the vessel might leave over the weekend — as Horizon Lines owner Matson had given the port a 30-day notice on April 11 cancelling its agreement to lease the space. The notice gave the company through about May 10 to move the vessel, said Mike Hogan, port spokesman. Matson paid about $1,000 a day under the agreement. It appears Matson sold the Fairbanks to All Star Metals, a ship recycling company based in Brownsville, Texas, to be scrapped, said Dave Warter, marine terminals manager for the Port of Bellingham. Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article73855472.html#storylink=cpy

Port of Bellingham ordered to pay $16M to injured ferry worker

A federal jury has ordered the Port of Bellingham to pay $16 million in damages to an Alaska ferries employee who was injured while operating a faulty passenger-loading ramp at the port’s cruise terminal in 2012.The verdict was returned Friday after a nine-day trial before U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman. Jim Jacobsen, one of the attorneys representing the employee, Shannon Adamson, and her husband, Nicholas, of Juneau, said the eight-member jury deliberated about five hours before deciding the case.The jury found the port negligent for failing to fix a control panel that operated the passenger gangway ramp at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal, even though evidence at the trial showed the port knew the panel was faulty and officials there knew of a previous, similar accident in 2008. In 2012, Adamson suffered life-threatening injuries when, while working as a mate aboard the Alaska ferry Columbia, the passenger gangway ramp at the Bellingham Cruise Terminal fell nearly 20 feet while she was adjusting it from a control panel. Jacobsen said she suffered multiple fractures, two punctured lungs, a lacerated liver and a head injury. Source: Seattle Times

House vote stops coastal Indians from blocking port for PRB coal

Plans for a controversial port in Puget Sound for Powder River Basin coal will advance under a House rider preventing coastal Indians from stopping the project. House lawmakers lead by Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., voted to keep the permitting process going for the Gateway Pacific Terminal near Bellingham, Washington. The Lummi Nation, which has fishing waters next to Cherry Point, had asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to abandon its review of the port proposal. The Lummi argued that its treaty rights would be violated by the terminal. However, Montana’s Crow Tribe made a counter argument that its treaty rights to profit from coal mined on land in the southeastern part of the state were in danger if the port plans were killed. The Crow have coal to ship and a stake in the Gateway Pacific Terminal. http://trib.com/business/energy/house-vote-stops-coastal-indians-from-blocking-port-for-prb/article_b7a9c7ae-4ef8-5b76-a055-bf1804bcb23b.html