PORT ANGELES ¬– The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration won’t extend today’s deadline for filing a protest of the agency’s decision to relocate its research fleet to Newport, Ore.
The Port of Port Angeles, Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles had requested that the deadline for protesting the agency’s selection be extended, and more information provided.
The three government entities, which had submitted a bid to base the fleet at the port’s Terminal 3 pier, had contended after being debriefed on the decision on Aug. 18 that they did not have enough information from NOAA to decide if a protest was warranted.
James Barrows, NOAA’s property contracting officer at the agency’s Sand Point facility, responded in an e-mail the port received Thursday that there was no more information to be had.
“We have reviewed the evaluators’ books and did not find any different information beyond what was described at the debriefing,” Barrows said in the letter.
The Port of Bellingham, which also submitted a bid to host the four-ship fleet, filed a protest of NOAA’s decision Thursday.
Bellingham contends that NOAA specified that the base could not be built on a floodplain and that Newport is on a floodplain.
A successful protest reopens the entire review process, so Port Angeles could benefit from Bellingham’s actions, said Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb.
“That’s a game changer for us,” he said.
NOAA also spurned an offer from Seattle, where the ships are now based at Lake Union, to accept the Oregon bid.
NOAA signed a 20-year-lease with Newport on Aug. 8. Its lease at Lake Union ends in 2011.
