WA, OR taxpayers left to pay for removal of derelict federal ships

WA, OR taxpayers left to pay for removal of derelict federal ships

This article originally appeared in InvestigateWest.Three years ago on a sunny day in August, a nearly 80-year-old navy-blue steel ship with patched holes and streaks of rust drifted down an inlet connecting downtown Tacoma to Commencement Bay. The 169-foot vessel was an unusual sight for local boaters who use the narrow channel to dock their small recreational watercraft. As it passed the Eleventh Street Bridge, the antennae of the Pacific Prod…