The federal government is suing a former chair of Juneau’s Docks and Harbors board for nearly $1 million spent to raise his sunken tugboat from Gastineau Channel in 2023.
The Justice Department filed suit in late February against longtime Juneau resident Don Etheridge and his wife, Teresa, in Alaska’s U.S. District Court.
Etheridge owned the Tagish, a 107-foot World War II-era wooden tugboat. He spent decades attempting to restore it as a hobby project. It sank in the channel just south of Juneau’s cruise ship docks where it was moored in December 2022.
It had approximately 60 gallons of diesel fuel and 50 gallons of lube oil on board when it sank. Multiple agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard, were called in to address the pollution threat.
According to the complaint filed in federal court, a federal administrative order was issued to Etheridge at the time of the vessel’s sinking, saying that he needed to establish a plan to remove it from the water. The order said that the sunken boat posed a “substantial threat to public health and the welfare of the environment.”
However, Etheridge didn’t have insurance for the vessel and couldn’t front the cost, so the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund paid for the recovery effort. The vessel sat in the water for two months before it was removed.
The National Pollution Fund Center then sent Etheridge the bill for $914,794 in November of last year, but he hasn’t paid a dime, according to the complaint. Etheridge declined to speak with KTOO regarding the lawsuit. In previous interviews, he said he was unsure how he’d pay for the recovery.
Derelict vessels are a growing problem in Alaska. A similar federal lawsuit was filed against the owner of a different WWII tugboat, the Challenger, which sank in the Gastineau Channel in 2015. The M/V Lumberman, yet another World War II-era tug, drifted up and down the channel before the Coast Guard finally towed it away and sank it in 2021.
The Justice Department also charged three fishermen in Alaska last month for allegedly intentionally sinking their boats.
