Port of Camas-Washougal extends cruise line contract

The Port of Camas-Washougal has extended its partnership with American Cruise Lines (ACL) despite concerns about the cruise line’s economic impact and commitment to sustainability. Port commissioners approved a docking agreement with ACL for 2025 and 2026 on July 17, three months after green-lighting a similar one-year contract to bring the Connecticut-based cruise line to the Washougal waterfront for the 2024 summer season. The new contract calls for ACL to dock at the Port approximately 90 times per year, identical to its current schedule, and pay the Port a docking fee of $2.75 per linear foot per vessel per stop, a 25-cent increase from 2024. The agreement is expected to generate about $140,000 for the Port, according to a staff report. “(The rate) went up 10 percent, and that puts us pretty high on the Columbia River in terms of rates,” the Port’s business development director, Derek Jaeger, said during the meeting. “But they’re agreeable to that.” “It’s not ‘big’ money,” Port of Camas-Washougal Commissioner Cassi Marshall replied, “but it’s money.” The Port hastily completed a docking agreement with ACL after American Queen Voyages (AQV), the cruise line that utilized the Port’s breakwater dock twice per week from in the summers of 2022 and 2023, declared bankruptcy in February 2024. After disembarking from the AQV’s American Empress, tourists walked to The Black Pearl event center’s parking lot, where they boarded a “hop-on, hop-off” bus bound for Washougal’s Two Rivers Heritage Museum, Pendleton Woolen Mills and Cottonwood Beach before heading to downtown Camas’ shopping district. “AQV oversold in terms of what their impact would be to the community,” Jaeger told Port commissioners. The Port’s initial agreement with ACL called for five vessels, ranging in size between 220 and 328 feet and holding between 125 and 200 passengers, to make 89 stops at the Port’s breakwater dock between March 31 and Nov. 8, 2024. It did not provide tourists opportunities to visit downtown Washougal or downtown Camas, however. “If we were to be more of a ‘stop’ like we were with the other cruise line, where people actually get off (the boat and explore the area, that would be great),” Marshall said during the Port Commission’s July 3 meeting. “With this one, we’re not getting any (tourist) interaction with the communities.” “I struggle with giving them all that space with very little impact to our community,” Port Commissioner John Spencer added during the July 3 meeting. “It makes a lot more sense once Hyas Point is in place. Right now, I’m not really sure what it’s doing for us. We’re getting a better lease rate this time, (however), which is great.” Jaeger indicated a willingness to bring up the commissioners’ economic concerns with ACL leaders. “I think the economic impact portion of it would be addressed in the next (agreement) if there is a longer-term contract,” he said. “What type of stop (would we be)? Are we a destination or are we just a quick stop? That’s the (big difference) with the economic impact numbers. That’s something we would definitely address in the future.” Brad Richardson, the executive director of the Clark County Museum, told Port leaders he would like to explore the idea of offering a guided tour bus to ACL tourists. “We could potentially put together a proposal to reach out to the city of Camas and the city of Washougal for lodging tax funds next year to do a shopping-and-sightseeing shuttle,” Richardson said. “I think a smaller shuttle that runs a couple times a day, self-managed by local people, (would be better). Visiting Two Rivers, shopping at Pendleton, getting coffee in downtown Washougal, (visiting) the new restaurants, going to downtown Camas for shopping, there’s lots of opportunity for a modest shuttle to be able to incorporate and help provide some modest economic benefit.” Sustainability questions linger The commissioners also questioned ACL’s sustainability efforts after receiving complaints from Parkers Landing Marina tenants about the fumes the cruise line’s vessels allegedly emit. “The tenants that I have talked to are not happy with it,” Camas resident and marina tenant Dan Liehr told the Commission in June. “The diesel generators that run on those (boats), the exhaust, is horrible. … American Harmony is the worst. You could look at the back of the boat and it’s all black, and I know some of that is from the motors that are running,, but when they’re sitting there idling or just docked and running the generator, the exhaust coming off of it is (bad).” Spencer called Liehr’s comments “quite concerning.” “We really have to look at that,” Marshall added. “That’s a big concern. It’s a health concern.” David Ripp, the Port’s chief executive officer, said he went to the marina in mid-June to investigate Liehr’s claims. “I ran down to the dock, and the generator was on, and the only time (the fumes) hit me is when I ran by the exhaust pipe,” Ripp told Commission members at their July 3 meeting. “I can’t remember if the wind was blowing that day, but I went by it and I smelled it, but it was just like a wall, and I got through it, and I was fine. Then when I came back, I ran through it again. I don’t know if it wafts through the marina; ‘A’ Row probably gets it if the air is stagnant.” Jaeger said the fumes are “noticeable when the vessel is under power and pushing away from the dock, primarily under situations when the weather’s pretty stagnant and there’s not a lot of wind.” “But we brought that to ACL’s attention, and they are willing to work ... to fix that going forward,” he said. “ACL is going to look at how they can minimize that impact, and we’ll work with them on that. We also installed air quality monitors out there. We want to monitor it ... so we can mitigate the impact to our tenants, for sure.” Jaeger said ACL is involved with the Port of Seattle’s “Pacific Northwest to Alaska Green Corridor” project, a collaborative partnership between major cruise lines, homeports and ports of call that is exploring how to lower greenhouse-gas emissions from cruise lines operating in Washington, British Columbia and Alaska. Marshall, however, questioned ACL’s commitment to the initiative, pointing out that the company wasn’t listed as an official program partner during a presentation that she and Ripp recently attended. “I like the talk about how they’re receptive to (these efforts),” Marshall said, “but without a really motivated partner who really wants to go there, being receptive to it without being proactive, to me, is quite different.” Jaeger said ACL is involved in the program indirectly through the Cruise Line Industry Association. “I think they understand they have to evolve with where the industry is going; otherwise, they’re just not going to be competing,” he said. “In that sense, they embrace the sustainability aspect, and they are involved.” On July 17, Spencer initially called for the Commission to delay the vote and convene a workshop with ACL leaders in order to gather more information about the cruise line’s sustainability efforts, adding that doing so “would send a message of, ‘We are interested in your business, but we’re also really interested in this issue.’” Jaeger agreed the two groups should hold a workshop, but urged the Commission to vote on the contract immediately because the cruise line was working to finalize its docking schedules. “I was sitting here thinking, ‘Is a workshop likely to change my vote?’ Not really,” Spencer said. “I think I am comfortable voting today, but still asking for that workshop, because it still sends the message. I do have a lot of questions, and I would love to have that one-on-one discussion.” The new docking agreement states that ACL “shall not release any hazardous substance into the surface, subsurface, water or air on or about the dock or facility or the common areas or adjacent property, including bus staging area.” The Port may terminate the new agreement “at any time in its sole and absolute discretion upon written notice to” ACL, “with such termination effective as of the end of any calendar day specified in the notice.” “However, said termination shall not take effect until the later of 30 days after the date of the notice or at the end of the last date of any date then currently scheduled on the docking schedule for that current year/season,” the agreement states.

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