ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Workers are dismantling the grounded freighter Selendang Ayu on Unalaska Island, but for now will leave the ship's bare steel deck in place.
The remainder of the ship, which went aground and broke in half in December, won't be touched this year, state officials say. The deck, which is roughly the size of a football field, may be left forever.
State policy calls for total removal of the ship, but officials may decide to leave part of the broken freighter in place, since cutting up and hauling off both halves could take a greater environmental toll than leaving it in place, said Leslie Pearson of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
The state will make a final decision this winter on what to do with the ship, Pearson said. Removal could begin next year, along with additional beach cleanup if necessary.
Workers have stripped the ship's interior of furniture, fixtures and thousands of gallons of paint, hydraulic fluid and other toxic fluids, according to Dan Magone, president of the Unalaska salvage company Magone Marine Services Inc.
Last week, Magone's crew started cutting apart the five-story white superstructure piece by piece using welding torches and a huge crane.
The work will likely be finished by late October, said Magone.
One of the last tasks will be to cut apart the exhaust stack, the top of which is about 80 feet above water level. Workers will have to drain it of water before they chop it up.
The Selendang Ayu left Tacoma, Wash., for China in November with 60,000 metric tons of soybeans aboard. About 140 miles northwest of Unalaska, the crew shut down its massive engine for repair and then could not restart it. The ship drifted 55 hours, blown southeast by a storm, before it beached on Unalaska Island on Dec. 8.
Six of its crew died when a Coast Guard rescue helicopter attempting to pull them off the grounded ship crashed.
The vessel broke in two shortly afterward. It spilled the soybeans and 335,000 gallons of oil into waters managed by the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The oil eventually washed up on about 70 miles of beach.
The soybeans are decomposing and will not have to be removed, Pearson said. About 75 percent of the affected beaches have been cleaned and the rest should be finished this summer, Pearson said.
A vessel tracking program has begun in the Aleutians that will provide the best information yet on the number, size and type of ships passing through. Officials say the new data could help determine how best to prevent shipwrecks in the region.
More than 2,700 ships capable of creating a sizable oil spill are thought to travel through the Bering Sea every year, including oil tankers, container ships, freighters and fishing boats of various sizes, ages and conditions. As trade with China increases, the number is expected to rise, shipping officials have said.
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Information from: Anchorage Daily News, http://www.adn.com
