Daily Triplicate - Federal damage threshold met

Crescent City Harbor officials are crossing their fingers after learning that California has met the threshold to apply for federal disaster relief funds.

Damages to the entire state had to exceed $44 million in order to qualify for federal assistance. California Emergency Management Agency representatives said the state sustained $48,147,098 in total damages when tsunami surges rocked coastal cities March 11.

Lori Newquist, spokesperson for Cal EMA, said Crescent City alone represents about 43 percent of the state's damage estimate.

“Crescent City had $20,740,855 in damages,” Newquist said.

That's in addition to the approximate $22.5 million in damages to the city's harbor from a smaller tsunami in 2006.

Harbormaster Richard Young said he hadn't heard directly from state officials as to whether or not the state had reached the $44 million threshold. However, he said a declaration “should be on Gov. Jerry Brown's desk,” once it's reached.

Representatives from the governor's office did not return calls for comment Monday.

Once the governor sends a request for federal funds to President Barack Obama, the president has 30 days to make a decision on whether or not to send federal aid.

Congressman Mike Thompson said he'll weigh in at the federal level once the governor makes his request. He said he'll send a letter asking the president to speed up the process.

“Once the letter goes out, I'll make the phone calls and hopefully make sure it's sped up,” Thompson said Monday. “It's important we get this done quickly. We can't afford to lollygag.”

Young agreed and said it's extremely important the harbor receive funding so people can get back to work. He said a federal declaration will greatly aid the rebuilding process.

“We're crossing our fingers,” Young said. “The funding gives us some opportunity to operate under more slightly relaxed permitting rules.”

These relaxed rules would potentially allow silt dredged from the harbor to be deposited back into the ocean instead of hauled off to a landfill.

More than 75,000 cubic yards of sediment was washed into the harbor by the tsunami. Young said the costs of dredging the harbor with more relaxed restrictions would be about $45 per cubic yard of silt. That figure jumps to $130 a cubic yard if it has to be hauled away. Depending on permits, the total cost could range from $3 million to more than $9 million.

A federal declaration would mean the harbor would only have to pay about 6 percent of the costs of rebuilding and dredging. Without it, the harbor is responsible for 25 percent of the costs. Assuming the $20,740,855 damage estimate, that's about a $3,940,000 difference in what the harbor would have to spend.

While harbor officials wait to see what happens next, workers continue to remove sunken vessels and clean up debris.

Alexia Retallack, California Department of Fish and Game spokesperson, said phases of the clean-up operation are going on simultaneously.

“We have seven sunken vessels that are removed,” Retallack said. “Four (that are) pollution threats are left.”

Fish and Game and U.S. Coast Guard officials said they've removed 13 of the 16 pilings that need to be extracted from the inner boat basin in order to allow the visiting crane barge to lift more sunken boats.

So far, 1,443 gallons of petroleum products have been removed and 1,620 cubic yards of debris have been extracted from the harbor. Nearly 1,300 feet of containment boom has been used.

Two booms that were placed across the Elk River were removed last weekend. The nearly 300 feet of boom showed no signs of petroleum products in the water, officials said.