Oregon Public Broadcasting

Governor Ted Kulongoski has proposed several ways to spend $2.8 million remaining from a settlement over the New Carissa shipwreck.  Pete Springer reports.

The money settled a state lawsuit after the shipwreck fouled the Oregon coast ten years ago.

Now Kulongoski wants a million dollars of it to go to the State Lands Department for mapping of the ocean floor off Oregon.

Mike Carrier is the governor’s natural resource policy director. 

He says sea floor mapping provides all kinds of useful information.

Mike Carrier “Where essential habitat is, where there’s sites that might lend themselves to developing wave parks, where there are sites that are ecologically significant that might be reserve sites -- all of those and other reasons make a compelling argument for doing more sea floor mapping.”

The governor is hoping to use another million dollars of the settlement to evaluate potential marine reserves. 

The rest of the money would be used to amend a coastal land use plan and to research the impact of wave energy sites on marine wildlife.

The legislative ways and means committee is reviewing the proposals.