GreenPacific Conference Coming to Seattle - Moving People and Cargo – Safely, Efficiently and Responsibly

Produced by Pacific Maritime Magazine, GreenPacific is an annual conference aimed at those in the maritime industry that are responsible for the movement of people and cargo: Specifically, those within marine transportation companies responsible for environmental sustainability, risk management and safety. The conference alternates between Southern California and Seattle. This year GreenPacific will be held September 21st and 22nd at the Seattle Hyatt Regency.

This year’s theme is Moving People and Cargo – Safely, Efficiently and Responsibly. The conference will consist of general sessions on environmental policy, supplemented by concurrent cargo-specific and ferry-specific tracks dedicated to funding and finance, technology and implementation of sound environmental practices.

Join maritime industry representatives in the ocean carrier, tug, barge and ferry operations sectors, legislators, policymakers, regulators and environmental agencies as we discuss cargo and ferry operations.

CARGO SESSION TOPICS:

• Policy and Funding for Environmental Best Practices
• Federal/State legislative Outlook: Regulations and Set Standards
• Environmental Best Practices: The Non-Regulatory Approach
• Green Certification Programs
• Green Terminal Technology

FERRY SESSION TOPICS:
Defining the Need, Building the Solution and Financing the Route

• Federal/State Legislative Outlook: Funding and Partnerships
• Terminal Technology: Building a Multimodal approach to land/water transit
• Wake Wash Mitigation
• Green Certification Programs: SNAME initiative and PVA WATERS Program
•   Green Technology
• Ferry System Case Study: Moderated Panel Discussion

For more information visit www.greenpacific.org.

SMBC shows Mayor McGinn Working Waterfront Firsthand

50 members of the Seattle Marine Business Coalition collaborated in late April to take our new mayor on a tour of Seattle’s commercial maritime and commercial fishing industries. Our goal was to show the mayor and his staff the dynamic nature of an industry that goes largely unseen …and unappreciated …and contributes $5 billion annually to Seattle’s economy.

The tour started on a partly cloudy morning at Kvichak Marine where we walked through the yard and visited one of the new Dutch Pilot boats being built on the Ship Canal.

From there we boarded a Western Towboat tug captained by Western Towboat president Ric Shrewsbury for a one-hour tour of the ship canal where we pointed out the many family-owned, environmentally responsible businesses that line the cut.

Ric deposited us at Fishermen’s Terminal where Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani and terminal manager Kenny Lyles joined us for a dock walk along the newly refurbished piers. Local seiner Paul Matson joined us to talk to the mayor about the dynamic small boat fleet that calls Seattle home.

From Fishermen’s Terminal we boarded a Port of Seattle van and shot along the viaduct to Todd Shipyards where John Lockwood and his team presented the mayor with a professional and comprehensive overview of Todd’s role in the maritime industry, and its importance to the local economy.

From there we boarded a Harley Marine Services tug for a tour of the Duwamish and its large marine industrial land users. We were joined by labor and management representatives who pressed home the theme of collaboration and family wage jobs.

Our intent was to impress upon Mayor McGinn the dynamic nature of our community, our environmentally responsible work practices, our multi-generational stability …and the collaborative nature with which management and labor work toward common goals. We achieved all of that thanks to the collaborative work that each of you contributed to the project.

The mayor offered these takeaways to me on the bus ride back downtown after the tour:

• He acknowledged the importance of the maritime and commercial fishing industries to the economic and cultural fabric of the city, and the interdependence of the two industrial neighborhoods that together make up that community.

• He understands and appreciates that storm water runoff treatment responsibility is falling unfairly on the owners and users of marine industrial lands.

• He acknowledged that the Seattle City Light rate increases will be an enormous burden and promised to consider its impacts in establishing rate policy

• He appreciated the sometimes misguided application of mitigation funds to ‘salmon protection’ sites that might better be used elsewhere.

•  He appreciated the importance of maintaining industrial street ends as industrial street ends.

However, there were two issues on which he was intransigent that disappointed me.

1. Mayor McGinn continues to support the proposed Burke Gilman trail alignment along Seaview. Our arguments about the disastrous potential impacts didn’t seem to resonate.


2. The mayor seemed unmoved at the importance of the Alaska Way Viaduct to the maritime industrial community. (even though it took us only ten minutes to get from Fishermen’s Terminal to Todd Shipyards.) He studiously avoided discussion of alternative freight routes should the viaduct come down.

These two issues will be the focus of the Seattle Marine Business Coalition’s advocacy efforts for 2010

Peter Philips
President
Seattle Marine Business Coalition

Kvichak Wins Seattle Business Magazine Manufacturer of the Year Award.

Seattle Marine Business Coalition member company Kvichak Marine Services has been awarded the award for ‘Large Manufacturer of the Year’ by Seattle Business Magazine, the publication reports in its June 2010 issue. The company was recognized for its versatility, environmental innovation and general business success in the face of recession.

Kvichak sells boats around the world and locally, ranging in size from 40-feet to 180-feet. Recent deliveries include pilot boats to the port of Rotterdam, Astoria Oregon and Houston Texas, Coast Guard patrol boats and US Navy support craft. The Company is the sole US builder of passenger hovercraft having built two to date, with a third now under contract. Kvichak built the two newest 40-foot harbor patrol boats for SPD.

In 2007, the Company opened a second construction facility dedicated to the production of USCG patrol boats under a contract expected to last eight-years. The partners are optimistic increasing foreign sales will spur additional employment and necessitate a third production facility in 2011.

Nickerson Street Road Diet

In late May Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn unveiled a new Walk Bike Ride initiative that includes a reduction in capacity for Nickerson Street, a vital access route to Ballard, Fremont Magnolia and Queen Anne residential and business traffic.

This action was taken with little consultation from stakeholders, and the little input that was invited was in strong opposition to the move. The initiative to narrow Nickerson has serious implications for Seattle’s transportation system, and the city’s quality of life.

SMBC is participating in a grass roots effort to convince the mayor to reverse his decision. Our intent is to demonstrate the depth and breadth of opposition to the Mayor’s plan to reduce capacity along Nickerson—and other major arterials.

SMBC, member companies and local residents coauthored letters sent to the mayor last week.

If you support our efforts, we urge you to appear with us at city council chamber on June 8th, 930am to testify before the council’s transportation committee. Even if you don’t testify, your presence will help us show the mayor how important Nickerson Street is to the marine industrial community in this city.

For more information, contact Peter Philips (206) 284-8285 or peter@RHPPublishing.com.