FAILED DRUG TEST BEACHES RIVER PILOT

Treatment Required During Suspension

A river pilot who tested positive for cocaine in early December has been
suspended for a year without pay and ordered to complete a drug abuse
treatment program and submit to random drug tests in order to return to work.

The conditions were part of a settlement reached Wednesday between the New
Orleans-Baton Rouge Steamship Pilots Association, or NOBRA, member Patrick
Van Gale and the NOBRA board of examiners, a state regulatory body composed
of three NOBRA members.

Gale, 41, a pilot since July 1990, agreed to surrender his state pilot
commission permanently if he fails a future drug test or doesn't complete
the treatment program before the end of his suspension. He has been off the
river since his positive drug test result was recorded.

Gale also has surrendered his federal pilot license for a year in an
agreement with the Coast Guard resulting from the positive drug test, said
Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Norris with the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in New
Orleans. That agreement must be reviewed by a Coast Guard administrative
law judge before becoming final.

The pilot board punishment will be costly for Gale. State pilots, who guide
large foreign ships along the Mississippi River between the Gulf of Mexico
and Baton Rouge, earn an annual target base pay of about $321,000.

The board softened the financial blow by letting Gale apply 62 days of
unused, paid vacation and sick time toward the one-year suspension.

Gale's positive drug test came after NOBRA officials ordered drug tests of
all its members and apprentices in response to a series of articles about
Mississippi River pilots in The Times-Picayune in early November that
raised questions about drug use among pilots.

The license of NOBRA pilot Roy Bowers was revoked earlier in 2001 after he
tested positive for illegal drugs, and two members of the Crescent River
Port Pilots Association were suspended after they tested positive for
cocaine in 2000.

Gale was the only NOBRA member to test positive for an illegal substance in
the late November sweep. Three other NOBRA pilots tested positive for
certain prescription drugs that caused the NOBRA board to suspend them with
pay for several weeks until they were cleared to return to work by physicians.

NOBRA pilots work along the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Crescent pilots work between New Orleans and Pilottown, near the mouth of
the river.

The Associated Branch Pilots, who work along Southwest Pass between
Pilottown and the Gulf of Mexico, routinely check pilots for drugs and say
that no pilot has failed a test.

Each group operates a state-sanctioned monopoly, and its members are
commissioned by the governor. State law requires most large foreign ships
to hire pilots when sailing along state waterways. Pilots often steer ships
containing dangerous cargo on the Mississippi, considered the most
treacherous commercial waterway in the nation.

Details of Gale's punishment were made public Wednesday during a special
meeting of the NOBRA board of examiners held at the Metairie office of the
board's attorney, Peter Connick. Gale was accompanied by his attorney,
William Wessel of New Orleans.

Other conditions of his suspension include making five round trips on ships
with other pilots before returning to work and paying all of the costs
related to his treatment program and drug tests.

Gale said he enrolled in early January in an intensive treatment program at
Addiction Recovery Resources of New Orleans Inc. and later joined a local
Alcoholics Anonymous group.

Connick said the board would have issued a more painful punishment had it
not been for favorable reports concerning Gale's rehabilitation progress
from counselors at the treatment center.

Gale's agreement with the Coast Guard requires him to attend at least two
monthly drug rehabilitation meetings and submit to at least 12 random drug
tests during his yearlong license suspension. His federal license will be
returned only after he is declared drug-free by a specially trained physician.