The U.S. Coast Guard is scaling back its once-ambitious plans for a polar security base along Seattle's waterfront.
The Coast Guard announced in November that it anticipated growing its footprint just west of T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field to expand the country’s “maritime dominance.” The earliest phase of work, worth some $137 million, included plans to dredge the waters around Pier 36 and build two modernized berths, where yet-to-be-built polar security cutters could dock.
But in documents filed this week by the Coast Guard, the military branch now says it only plans a modest footprint expansion and that it will not build any additional berths.
Why?
Damage to the Port of Seattle’s economy, local tribes, high cost of construction and widespread contamination all played a part, according to an environmental-impact statement regarding the work. The Coast Guard published the documents as part of the branch's decision to scale back the polar base. Officials for the branch could not immediately be reached for comment or additional information, likely due to the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Now, the Coast Guard plans only to buy up to 5.5 acres of land at Terminal 46, adjacent to Pier 36, and another 1.1 acres nearby, the documents say. This land will be used to provide setbacks for “Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection.” That land purchase, should the deal go through, is as little as a tenth of the original proposed expansion.
At the same time, the Coast Guard plans to modernize or renovate existing facilities, the documents say. No additional ships will be able to dock at the base once the work is finished; instead, existing spaces for four ships will remain.
The pullback amounts to yet another complication for a major promise made by President Donald Trump early in his second term. He promised to add as many as 40 new icebreakers to the United States' fleet, and a deal with the Finnish government for 11 more is underway. The idea is to catch up to or surpass China and Russia’s fleets. China has at least four ships, and Russia has dozens.
Whether the United States purchases more icebreakers in the years ahead, or where the new ones will make port, remains to be seen.
Currently, the Coast Guard has three polar icebreakers, one of which, the aging Coast Guard Cutter Healy, docks in Seattle.
As the Northern Hemisphere warms, clearing ice sheets that previously blocked passages through many of the Arctic's frigid waters, countries across the world are eyeing the region with renewed interest for scientific research, resource extraction and even a potential food supply.
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