February 23th, 2009
How Many Good People Are Needed to Save the Environment?
Only Two! Just when everything seems a little off kilter, the economy that’s troubling, people that disappoint, and an environment that’s laden with irresponsibility, along come Jeff Sokolic, Fairhaven Shipyards, and Tom Mackey, Hyde Marine.
Fairhaven Shipyards in Bellingham, Washington purchased a barge, Lucky Angel with the intent of towing it to the U.S., refurbishing it, using it as a submersible dry-dock, and renaming it Faithful Servant. The 132.5 m long x 40.2 m wide vessel was loaded with an estimated 11,500 m3 – 19,000 m3 of ballast water from unknown Chinese coastal waters. The shipyard found itself in a dilemma, one that some would not have been so high-minded about settling: do an open-sea exchange, easy but risky, or bring the barge in and proactively address aquatic invasive species before deballasting. They chose to do the right thing.
Fairhaven contacted the U.S. Coast Guard who referred them to the State of Washington, Department of Fish and Wildlife Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Unit. Of the options available currently, chemical or system treatment, the Department gave its approval to the Hyde GuardianTM saying, “The system is a technology that employs a filtration and UV light process to meet state discharge standards for ballast water organisms.”
Jeff Sokolik, Port Engineer, had a big job ahead of him. Not only did he have to unload water safely but he also had to unload the heavy, thick sediments that had over years collected from the China seas. The objective was to get every bit of sediment out so that treatment would not be needed in the future. This was not an ordinary job.
The answer was the Guardian. It used no chemicals, had no chemical residue, had a filtration system that could effectively facilitate the removal of all sediment and a UV treatment that would prevent discharging foreign organisms into local waters. Tom Mackey, Chairman Hyde Marine, recognized the environmental importance of the situation and offered Fairhaven Shipyards the courtesy use of the Hyde Guardian.
The system was on its way back from IMO testing. Having been rated IMO compliant, Mackey was confident in lending the system to Jeff. When asked why he generously lent them the system, Mackey responded, “They were doing what was right and needed a helping hand. We were in a position to help and we did. In the end, the real winner was the environment.”
Jeff comparing the Guardian to the cost of $.25/gallon to use an industrial waste stream said, “The Hyde Guardian is a valuable alternative and in addition, the people at Hyde were phenomenally supportive.” More then 3.7 million gallons of water were treated and the Guardian, graded on a scale of 1 to 5 by the Department of Fish and Wildlife, received the rare, perfect score of “5”.