COOS BAY —The last big chunk of shipwreck is gone, but no one’s ready to declare the New Carissa demolition project complete.

“It’s not over yet,” said Oregon Department of State Lands Communications Director Julie Curtis. “But no one feels it will be anything but successful.”

Most people involved with the New Carissa removal project were quick to say so Tuesday, as Titan Salvage crewmen carved up the last visible piece of the shipwrecked stern.

The wood chip ship left a legacy of setbacks since it ran aground in a storm in February 1999. First, it wouldn’t budge from the sandy surf. Then there was the broken tow line that sent the broken bow adrift. With Titan so close to finally removing the remains, no one wants to jinx it by saying the job is done before it actually is.

Nonetheless, a sense of conclusion seemed to hover over the project and the nine-year ordeal leading up to it.

Titan Engineering Director Phil Reed said salvors will dive today on the remaining smaller pieces underwater — if the weather cooperates. During any weather down time,  the crew will prepare the barges for departure.

Bill Milwee, the incident commander of the team that unsuccessfully tried to remove the wreck in the summer of 1999, said he felt confident the ship would go this time around.

“I thought if anybody could do it they could,” Milwee said of Titan in a phone interview.

He is glad to see Titan finish what he started.

The strategy in 1999 was to cut down enough of the stern to refloat it. Milwee had planned to haul it out to sea and sink it in deep water. The joint team of salvors from Donjon Marine and Fred Divine Diving and Salvaging Co. was cutting off pieces and flying them out off by helicopter.

“We didn’t have anything comparable to those jack-up barges,” he said.

Ultimately the weather threw a wrench into Milwee’s plans.

“We had a horrible summer out there in 1999,” he said.

The New Carissa held its ground and Milwee’s team moved on to other projects.

In 2002, a Coos County jury sided with the state of Oregon in its lawsuit against New Carissa owner Green Atlas Shipping Company. The jury agreed; the wreck needed to go.

The trial, appeal and settlement negotiation were no less trying than the first removal attempt, Curtis said.

Since the legal wranglings ended, every step of the process has gone well, she said. Even when chunks of tar started washing up in mid-August, the response plan set up worked just as it was supposed to, Curtis added.

In May 2007, the state and Titan signed a $16.4 million contact for the shipwreck removal.

The state has paid Titan in stages. So far, Titan has earned $6.6 million. An invoice for the stern removal for about $5.4 million should be coming in soon and the balance of the contract will be paid once Titan has demobilized.

Part of demobilization includes tearing down the company’s compound on the North Spit and returning the site to its original state, including replanting native plants. Reed said the compound site could be torn down and reshaped in about five days.

Curtis said completion of the project will send a strong signal to the maritime industry that wrecks and debris won’t be left on Oregon’s beaches.

“We felt all along that it was very important to carry through with the verdict,” Curtis said.

Judge Richard Barron agrees.

Green Atlas litigators and state attorneys argued their case in his courtroom. Barron feels that the state made a compelling argument to jurors in its contention that shipwrecks shouldn’t be allowed to remain on Oregon’s shore.

“The state made its case,” Barron said. “The jury agreed.”

Barron, like the jury, was convinced the wreck could be removed, especially after listening to Titan Managing Director David Parrot testify how he’d do it. This summer Barron saw the proof Parrot’s plan was sound.

“It was exactly what was described,” he said.

For now, Reed is hoping for a few more calm sea days to finish the job.

When the weather calms next week, Titan will bring out a floating barge to haul away scrap metal. Once the sea settles, the crew will ease down the Karlissa barges and haul them to Empire. Titan most likely will deliver the promised propeller to Coos Bay at that time, too, Reed said. He said the prop, which is to go to the Coos Historical and Maritime Museum, will be detached from the huge piece of steel it’s connected to and dropped off at the Coos Bay city docks.

“The better the weather, the sooner we get out of here,” Reed said.