Congressman Brad Sherman - Who Killed The Cutter Storis? Part I

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif)

The retired Coast Guard Cutter Storis was sold by public auction in June, 2013 to failed businessmen Mark Jurisich and Dr. John Bryan owners of US Metals Recovery, LLC. of San Diego.

In late October, 2013 after Mark Jurisich allegedly failed to extort $250,000 from the Storis Museum group in exchange for the ship, Jurisich finally managed to get the ship moved to a ship breaker yard in Ensenada, Mexico. As the Storis was being moved, news broke that the ship contained illegal levels of PCB's contained in led paint, electrical wiring casing, etc. and the EPA was notified to prevent the ship from leaving the United States.

The cutter Storis, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, had hundreds of supporters working to save the ship in order to have her serve  the public as a maritime museum where she was built over 65 years ago in Toledo, Ohio.

Politicians and elected officials were contacted by Storis supporters and asked to intervene in order to keep the ship in US waters. This blog post is devoted to all the politicians and government officials and agencies who were contacted with pleas for help in the situation and did nothing.
This blog post is my way of thanking those who did nothing to save the Storis by creating a public record for anyone to see. You won't see anything about their lack of attention in the matter on any of their websites or in their press releases because, they dropped the ball and it wouldn't cast a positive image of them in the public eye.

The first public official this blog would like to recognize as one of the many who assisted (indirectly) with the killing of the Coast Guard cutter Storis is...

Congressman Brad Sherman 

who represents (quite poorly, I might add) the 30th Congressional District which is the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

Rep. Sherman was contacted and asked to help with the Storis situation but, he did nothing to help. In fact, he would have at least served himself better had he ignored the email he was sent but, he sent a reply to the Storis supporter. As you can see in his response below, he did not address the situation with the Storis. He didn't even mention the Storis at all. How nice of Rep. Brad Sherman to essentially slap the Storis supporter in the face by responding with a self-promoting FORM LETTER!
Here's hoping that someone will see this blog post and forward it to Congressman Sherman.

Thank you very much for contacting me. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with me. Hearing from you is very important to me because it provides me with insight into your thoughts and concerns on the major issues facing Congress today. I look forward to your continued input and will keep your concerns in mind. 
Only part of my job is voting in Washington. Another important part of my job is helping resolve problems that constituents are experiencing with federal agencies. If you are interested in any of these services, please contact my district office at (818) 501-9200 or visit my website athttp://BradSherman.house.gov/. You can also follow me on Twitter by visiting Twitter.com/BradSherman, or become my fan on Facebook. My official government Facebook page is registered as "Congressman Brad Sherman." Again, thank you very much for contacting me and sharing your views. I hope to hear from you further in the future. 
Sincerely, Brad ShermanMember of Congress

Thank you, Representative Sherman! Thank you for all of your help in trying to save the Storis... Even though you ignored the call for help. So, I hereby recognize Congressman Brad Sherman as one of the players responsible for the killing of the Coast Guard cutter Storis.

A note to Storis supporters: If you contacted a public official or government agency and your pleas for help were ignored or cast aside, please contact me, Jim Watkins with the information you have and I will add it to this blog in a future dedicated post.

Will Historic Coast Guard Ship Escape Scrap Heap?

Image from Coast Guard Cutter Storis 

Originally published by Vallejo Times-Herald, Jessica A. York - November 1, 2013

A storied former U.S. Coast Guard vessel sent from Suisun Bay's "mothball fleet" to Mexico for scrapping last week has raised concerns over the 71-year-old ship's final stop.

Environmental concerns related to ships in the federal government's Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet have been an ongoing issue for years, often boiling down to a battle between federal officials and environmental agencies.

The latest scuffle includes an emerging third party -- historical preservationists vying to rescue some of those ships from metal scrapping.

Last week, one such battle came to a head. Officials working for years to convince federal officials to hand over the retired U.S. Coast Guard ice cutter Storis to a nonprofit to serve as a museum ship were shocked first when the vessel was auctioned off by the federal General Services Administration this summer, then towed to Mexico last week. A spokeswoman for the General Services Administration did not return a call seeking comment on the issue Thursday.

At the urging of interested parties, the Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation into whether the Storis may contain toxin levels illegally high for foreign export, officials confirmed Wednesday.

The Storis -- used for decades for law enforcement, search and rescue and fisheries work in Alaska -- was sold to San Diego-based U.S. Metals Recovery LLC on June 28 for $70,100. There was an initial requirement that the vessel be removed from the Suisun Bay Reserve "Mothball" Fleet by July 12.

"On Oct. 21, EPA received information that the STORIS was potentially being exported by U.S. Metals Recovery to Mexico for scrapping and that the ship could contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in concentrations greater than or equal to 50 parts per million," a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 wrote in an emailed statement. "EPA immediately began investigating to determine if the vessel contained PCBs, and if so, at what level. This investigation remains ongoing."

The ship has called the federally managed Suisun Bay fleet "home" since its 2007 retirement from the Coast Guard. A spokeswoman for fleet manager U.S. Maritime Administration referred questions about the ship's departure for Texas to the Coast Guard. Coast Guard officials locally and in Washington, D.C. were still looking into a reporter's questions on the issue Thursday.

Jon Ottman, a Michigan marine historian and consultant working with the STORIS Museum and Education Center officials, raised concerns that U.S. Metals Recovery seems to have no physical presence -- website, office phone or physical location -- over which to bring complaints about the out-of-country delivery.

He added that a man associated with the U.S. Metals Recovery and the sale, Mark Jurisich, allegedly asked nonprofit STORIS Museum officials for $250,000 to sell the vessel instead of scrapping it. Efforts to reach Jurisich were unsuccessful.

Prior to the auction in June, volunteers looking to preserve the Storis initially planned to bring the vessel to Juneau, Alaska, where it had spent so much of its career, and to become a museum ship and train young Sea Cadets. Later, an effort from Toledo, Ohio -- where the vessel was built -- took the lead. Also in the running for the ship were the California Ships to Reefs group, looking to have the vessel sunk and used as an artificial reef when word that the bidding process did not result in a buyer reaching the a minimum-set bid price.

The Storis "made history in 1957 when it led two other Coast Guard cutters through icy waters near the North Pole and into the Atlantic Ocean," and "became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent," according to Bay Area News Group articles written about the ship upon its retirement.

In 2012, the Storis was listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the help of a nomination penned by Ottman. The nomination notes that the Storis is one of the last remaining vessels that participated in the World War II Greenland Patrols.

For more information on the Storis, visit www.storismuseum.org.

Contact staff writer Jessica A. York at (707) 553-6834 or jyork@timesheraldonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @JYVallejo.