It's been a decade since Coos Bay shipyard owners and state environmental officials sat at opposite sides of the table. They were haggling back and forth under the threat of a Superfund listing.

At the time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had labeled five shipyards as contaminated. Three were out of business or headed there.

Within five years, cleanup companies had removed contaminants from the tideflats around each of the shipyards. In other tideflats where there had been concerns about tributyltin contamination, health officials had lifted shellfish advisories after re-evaluating safety levels.

The thinking then was that the bay floor was clean and should stay that way.

That's still the theory, but there's no scientific study confirming it.

“Some of the sampling I did in the mid-'90s is some of the last data collected in Coos Bay,” said Pam Blake, a local water quality specialist with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

The state did monitor five sites in 2001 but they were not the same sites tested before. For Coos Bay, advisories banning shellfish gathering have been lifted over the years as officials re-evaluated allowable toxin levels, Blake said.

More recently, researchers collected sediment and shellfish tissue samples as part of the Coastal Estuary Monitoring and Assessment Program. That data isn't yet available.

DEQ officials aren't sure exactly what's in Oregon's streams and estuaries. The reason for the lack of definitive answers is money. DEQ's toxics testing funding was cut years ago, though Blake said there is resurgence of interest. The agency is planning to ask the 2007 Legislature to again pay for water quality toxics work.

These days, Blake is concerned with bacteria that's flushed into the bay during heavy rains. Also, there are problems in Isthmus Slough and some other remote areas with low dissolved oxygen levels. But that's not related to shipyards.

And when it comes to people's pollution fears on ship recycling, DEQ officials are grappling with an unknown.

The state doesn't have rules specifically dealing with a facility that would tow in former military or outdated commercial vessels for dismantling.

In December, DEQ officials were caught off guard when Virginia-based Bay Bridge Enterprises wanted to pull ships into a slip at Newport. In the fated proposal, workers would have done hazardous materials work inside vessels and then dragged them up on land and cut them apart.

At the time, officials said permitting would be a quick-and-easy process. That didn't set well with legislators or the public.

Since then, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has said no ship recycling operations will happen in Oregon unless the work is done in graving or dry docks. And, while no company has given the state a ship recycling business plan, DEQ has authored a fact sheet on shipbreaking issues concerning Coos Bay. In it, state officials say the agency wants to ensure any operation “would offer equal or better environmental protection than a dry dock.”