Western Front - 2004 January 27

              ISSUE 5
VOLUME 128
VIKING CONQUEST
Western sends Central
to Ellensburg crushed.
Sports, Page 10
PROS AND CARBS
Dietician warns that not
enough is known about
low-carb diets.
Opinions, Page 14
IT'S A BLAST
Local ski patrol fights
avalanches at Mt. Baker
Ski Area.
Features, Page 8
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington
The Western Front TUESDAY
JAN. 27, 2004
Olympic Pipeline may not
have to pay all of its fines
By Lee Fehrenbacher
The Western Front
The Office of Pipeline Safety, a division of
the U.S. Department of Transportation, may
not collect $2.8 million of a $3.05 million
fine, part of the largest pipeline fine in U.S.
history.
OPS spokesman Damon Hill said the
office still was negotiating with Olympic
Pipeline and that recovering the remainder
of the fine with Olympic would be more
complicated and time consuming since
Olympic Pipeline filed for bankruptcy in
March.
, Ben Arnold/The Western Front
In his corner office on the sixth floor of the Herald Building, Carl Weimer, execu­tive
director of SAFE Bellingham, works on daily concerns. Weimer said the
Department of Transportation has postponed dealing with the Olympic fine issue.
On June 10, 1999, a ruptured pipeline
released approximately 236,000 gallons of
gasoline into Hannah and Whatcom Creeks,
which erupted into a fireball, killing 10-year-olds
Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas and
18-year-old Liam Wood, as well as causing
extensive damage to the surrounding areas.
Following the explosion, the office fined
Olympic Pipeline Company, the pipeline
operator, $3.05 million in civil penalties.
SAFE Bellingham executive director Carl
Weimer said that when the office imposed
the fine, the DOT made a point of publiciz­ing
it, but now it seemed the DOT Was try­ing
to let the issue silently slip away.
"Government agencies make it sound like
they're doing one thing and then turn
around and do another/and we just hope
that's not the case with Olympic Pipeline,"
Weimer said.
Earlier this month, Shell Pipeline
Company LP, the majority owner of
Olympic Pipeline at the time of the explo­sion,
agreed to pay $250,000 of the fine but
denied any responsibility for the explosion.
British Petroleum took over 62.5 percent of
the pipeline in July 2000, while Shell has
owned 37.5 percent since before the explosion.
This past week, however, the Pipeline
Safety Trust, a nonprofit pipeline-safety
information clearinghouse and industry
watchdog created by the families of Wood
SEE Fines, PAGE 4
Ben Arnold/ The Western Front
Bellingham resident Elijah
Nelson smokes at the
Roguehero Sunday night.
Public-health
group wants to
limit smoking
By Marinda Peugh
The Western Front
A Bellingham anti-tobacco
activist group is lobbying in
Olympia for a statewide smoking
ban.
Members of COMMIT for a
Tobacco Free Whatcom County
plan address the Whatcom
County Council Feb. 4 about
enacting a policy similar to one
the Tacoma/Pierce County Board
of Health passed Dec. 3, which
made smoking illegal in any place
SEE Smoking, PAGE 4
Level III sex offender now attends Western
After seven months, University
Police find out offender's status
ByEricBerto
The Western Front
The Whatcom County
Sheriff's Office recently made
an official decision to classify
Western sophomore Thomas
Leland Tucker Jr. as a Level DJ
sex offender.
This comes
months after
U n i v e r s i ty
Police sent a
memo to
W e s t e r n
administra­tors
labeling
Tucker as a
Level I sex
offender.
In a June 18
memo sent to Western admin­istrators,
Assistant UP Chief
David Doughty wrote that the
sheriff's office had sent a
memo the day before saying a
Thomas
Tucker Jr.
Level I sex offender had
enrolled at Western.
Jeff Parks, Whatcom County
Sheriff's office chief criminal
deputy, later said the memo
contained no language to indi­cate
Tucker was a Level I
offender.
"I do not see anything in the
memo that says he is a Level
I," Parks said.
Parks said the sheriff's office
informed Western that Tucker
was a registered offender. The
office, however, did not clarify
at what level he was classified.
Doughty said he based the
memo he sent to administra­tion
on information the sher-riff's
office provided him.
"If it didn't say (his level) in
the memo, then I called the
detective and asked him,"
Doughty said.
Sex offenders must, by law,
register with the sheriff's office
in the county in which they
reside. It is at the discretion of
the sheriff's office to classify an
offender as a certain level, sher­iff's
detective Ray Oaks said.
Oaks said he evaluated
Tucker's status Dec. 18 and
classified him as a Level HI
offender. This evaluation came
nearly four years after
Tucker's release from prison in
Febuary 2000 after serving six
months for child molestation
and rape of a child, according
to Washington State Patrol
criminal records.
Parks said the sheriff's office
formulates a rating based on a
series of questions and the
other information available to
the office.
"With what we know now,
this person should be a Level
EI," Parks said.
Oaks said that since Tucker
served his time in the
SEE Records PAGE 6
Administration may consider
removal as a possible option
By Eric Berto
The Western Front
After learning that a Level III sex
offender attends Western, administra­tors
must now decide his fate.
University Police announced
Monday that Western sophomore
Thomas Leland Tucker Jr. is now offi­cially
classified as. a Level TO sex
offender, the category most likely to re­offend,
said Assistant University
Police Chief David Doughty.
"We didn't get notice until last week
(that Tucker was a Level HI offender),"
Doughty said.
Western Dean of Students Ted Pratt
said that because of Western's policy
to provide a safe learning environment
for all members of the Western com­munity,
Tucker might be removed
from Western.
"What I want to do is go in and say,
'Based on our policies, what kind of
actions are we legally responsible to
take?'"Pratt said.
At this time, however, Pratt said he
is not sure of the legal options Western
can take.
"I don't know, based on his level
(DI) and what our policies state, how
much of a defense I can put up for
him," Pratt said.
Tucker's classification as a Level DI
offender emerged nearly seven
months after he registered at Western.
He is a full-time student, Pratt said.
"What really concerns us is that he is
in a school environment with access to
really young women," said Jeff Parks,
Whatcom County Sherriff's Office
chief criminal deputy.
According to Washington State
Patrol criminal history, Tucker served
six months in the Whatcom County
Jail on one charge of child molestation
and one charge of rape of a child.
Pratt said that although the admin­istration
has set no deadline for a deci­sion
of Tucker's fate, he expects to
reach a decision by the end of the
week. He also said he has not been
able to contact Tucker.