Coos Bay is a tiny contender among West Coast ports, but it's drawing some big interest from ship-breaking companies.

Two ship recyclers are lining up to take a closer look at Coos Bay. That was the announcement Thursday night from Jeffrey Bishop, the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay's executive director.

It's a tricky issue for the port.

One coastal community and the governor already have snubbed one company's first proposal. The Port of Newport's negotiations with Bay Bridge Enterprises LLC ran aground late last year, when that port made what residents considered a surprise announcement that the Virginia ship-breaking company would be sailing into town. Residents were concerned about hazardous wastes aboard ship and the possibility the hulls might carry invasive species that could be released into Yaquina Bay. The debate fireballed, sinking the deal.

The Port of Coos Bay doesn't want that to happen here.

Bishop read a prepared statement Thursday night. He made it clear his agency, which is working to own the majority of the industrial property on Coos Bay's North Spit, isn't wading deep into negotiations with any ship recyclers without first having a community discussion. Bishop said his staff and port commissioners need more information. They want to have an open and balanced discussion of all the issues surrounding ship recycling. Those public meetings could start in early March.

“From that we can establish an open process for assessing whether or not the Port of Coos Bay should, and if so how to, entertain any ship recycling proposals,” he said.

Ship recycler

That's precisely the way G. Dennis Vaughan, of Environmental Recycling Systems, wants the port to handle it.

“I really want this to be a port operation. It's theirs to have or lose. I don't want to push ourselves on the port at all,” he said.

Vaughan, who's based in Seattle, isn't ready to discuss his idea in great detail. At this point, he and investors are proposing to build two graving docks large enough to take in tankers or ships up to 900 feet long.

The operation would start small, with maybe 100 employees. But it's the graving dock technology Vaughan wants to develop. It would be self-contained, he explained, kind of like sailing a vessel into a lock at the Panama Canal.

All water around the vessel or that falls from the sky into the specialized lock would be filtered. The environmentally conscientious Norwegians come close, he said, with their eco-dock concept.

“We want to be 100-percent self-contained. Once a ship goes in those doors close behind it,” he explained.

Vaughan's familiar with the shipping industry on several fronts. He grew up in Coos Bay. He graduated from Marshfield High School, moved on to Oregon State University and eventually found a career with the U.S. Navy.

The retired rear admiral said Thursday that he entered into the ship recycling business two years ago. And ironically it seems, his enterprise is steering him back to Coos Bay.

There are about 150 former U.S. military vessels anchored awaiting recycling. Congress set what appears to be an unlikely deadline that those ships be safely disposed of by the end of this year. That doesn't include the potentially thousands of other privately owned ships, tankers and barges that are and will become obsolete.

The catch is the cost of American labor and tough safety and environmental rules. Ultimately, companies working with Congress may find ways to export those ships to other countries, where there's cheaper labor and a sizzling steel recycling market.

Vaughan would like to see his company and his hometown to get some of that business. And port staff expect his proposal is just one of more undoubtedly to come as companies compete to get the federal government's business.

Enlisting research aid

Coos Bay's research community, the folks at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology and South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, are likely to be involved in the public forums in the coming months about the ship recycling industry.

Mike Graybill, the slough's manager, welcomes the discussion, especially when it comes to learning about invasive species.

“This is a decision-making body that is making sure they do their homework, and I'm happy to provide information,” Graybill said recently.

Coos Bay faces risks all the time with invasive species just by the fact that ships and barges come and go almost daily from the port. It's a global issue with consequences that aren't clear, Graybill said. But he wasn't at Thursday's port meeting.

Few people showed up to hear Bishop's ship recycling announcement, since more than 100 residents were sitting across town debating over a proposal to develop a housing project on the former Sitka Dock property just across the bay from the North Spit.

At the port meeting, there was a representative from the local longshore workers' union, a Sause Bros. Ocean Towing employee, a Weyerhaeuser Co. manager, the liquid natural gas project's local manager and Ken Messerle, a former state senator who works these days as a consultant to help agencies with economic development.

None of them said a word when Bishop talked about holding public meetings.

While Bishop may have had a lot to say, port commissioners were silent, except for one.

“I will be happy to see this process unfold,” Commissioner Caddy McKeown said.

And with that, the port commission channeled its discussion into other topics - how to remain a contender for dwindling federal dredging funds and money to upgrade the railroad system through Coos Bay.