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The work group recommends that states look to Washington, which is considered to have a model boat-disposal program-one focused on prevention, owner responsibility, and generating funds for removal. “There is a strong sense from everybody who deals with the issue that it is getting worse pretty much everywhere ,” says Hilary Wilkinson, an environmental consultant in Washington who helps lead the task force and chairs its abandoned vessel work group. The task force labeled derelict and abandoned vessels a “critical, emerging issue” and established a work group to explore the problem. In 2017, cast-off boats caught the attention of the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force, an intergovernmental group that promotes coordination in addressing oil spills. But long-abandoned boats are piling up: by 2025, Alaska’s fleet will include more than 3,000 vessels between 8.5 and 18 meters long that are over 45 years old-past the point of a useful life for most boats-according to the Alaska-based McKinley Research Group. Most are smaller than the Lumberman and easier to remove and salvage locally. Juneau discards about a dozen boats annually. “But in this case with the Lumberman, was the most cost-effective method.” “It’s not a common method,” Creswell says. Sinking is a bargain in comparison, but it will still cost Juneau Docks and Harbors over $100,000 for towing, removing trash, and stripping toxic lead paint from the vessel. The Lumberman, for example, could be discarded and hauled to a landfill, or transported by barge to Seattle, Washington, but either option would cost between $250,000 and $400,000, Creswell says. On Alaska’s expansive coasts, where infrastructure is sparse, prices are particularly high. The cost of removal varies by a vessel’s size and location. “They walk away from the boats costing an arm and a leg to get rid of.” “People generally don’t walk away from the nicer boats that have value,” says Matthew Creswell, harbormaster at Juneau’s Docks and Harbors. There are many reasons a boat may be abandoned: the owner can die or become unable to continue the boat’s upkeep, or the cost of either maintenance or disposal can be prohibitive. On Alaska’s remote shorelines, these costs can double.

Each state along the US West Coast would need over US $20-million to handle the backlog, and close to $5-million annually to address the ongoing problem. Abandoned boats can also damage habitat and leach toxic materials, such as lead paint, asbestos, and household cleaners, threatening coastal environments. In 2017, two people who were trying to reach the Lumberman died when their skiff overturned.

Hundreds of such boats are strewn along Alaska’s coast, where they can become navigational hazards or dangerously alluring destinations. This is an uncommon way to deal with a common problem in coastal areas: what to do with abandoned and derelict vessels. This spring, weather permitting, city officials will open a 15-centimeter valve on the ship, allowing it to sink 2,560 meters to the ocean floor. In late October, Juneau got permission from the Environmental Protection Agency to get rid of the boat: by scuttling it offshore, about 274 kilometers from the city. Fearing property damage, the City of Juneau took responsibility for the historical tug and towed it to the cruise ship dock. Then, last winter, a high tide and forceful winds pushed the Lumberman from the tidelands.

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Two years ago, the tugboat’s anchor line broke, stranding it on state tidelands and creating a jurisdictional hot potato for city, state, and coast guard officials as they debated how to dispose of the vessel. Abandoned for nearly a decade, the Lumberman was moored in Juneau’s Gastineau Channel in the early 2000s by its last owner, Brenden Mattson. The Lumberman, a 33-meter Second World War–era steel-hull tugboat, has been floating at the quiet cruise ship dock in Juneau, Alaska, for months, awaiting a watery grave.

This article was originally published in High Country News, a magazine about the American West’s environment and communities.

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