PORT TOWNSEND — The cheap blue tarps found lying under many boats in the Port of Port Townsend’s work yard will be a thing of the past under newly-approved Port regulations.
Impervious canvas is the environmentally friendly future of properly containing waste from boat work, Port officials say.
The Port of Port Townsend commissioners, during their regular meeting Wednesday afternoon, also cracked down on loud, uncontained sandblasting, further limiting sand-blasting hours of operation and restricting how such work takes place.
The commissioners voted 3-0 to direct staff to write up draft policies regarding independent operators and other tenants for final approval.
“Because of Ocean View issues, it’s caused us to reopen all processes,” Port Executive Director Larry Crockett said.
He was referring to the Port’s working with Port-evicted John “Mike” Hogan’s Ocean View Marine Services business to allow him back into the work yard after Port officials accused him of violating noise and sand-blasting containment rules.
The action comes a week after the Port commissioners, facing threats of legal action from Hogan’s attorney, chose to consider allowing Hogan back into the yard as an independent operator, also called a “tail-gater.”
Hogan must agree to meet the Port’s restrictions on noise and sand-blasting operations or be permanently banned from the yard.
Crockett reiterated Wednesday that what is good for Hogan must be good for all marine trades operations on Port-owned properties.
The Port’s attorney, Malcolm Harris, told the commissioners that they were well within their authority to tell lease tenants, boat owners and independent operators how they must conduct business on Port property.
“We have the authority to regulate these activities,” Harris told the Port commissioners, who have been looking at much more restrictive Port yard operations, such as Olympia’s Swantown Marina and Boatworks.
“To come onto public property to run a business, the rules definitely apply here . . . We not only have the right to do it, but a duty to make sure an operator working on port property is complying with federal environmental laws, with state environmental laws.”
Harris said the Port also has the duty to ensure that tenants using Port property are “not going to be disturbed.”
The Port even has the authority to close the boat and ship yards to all independent operations.
