2010-2011 Annual Report
Oil Spill Prevention
Oil Spill Prevention
To ensure a maximum level of safety, the council reviews all aspects of the oil transportation system in Prince William Sound. These include operations of oil tankers and the Valdez Marine Terminal, oil spills and other incidents, and the adequacy and maintenance of the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service.
Tanker Safety
Dual Escort System
Preservation of the dual tugboat escort system for loaded oil tankers in Prince William Sound has long been a priority for the council. The Sound's escort system is recognized by numerous individuals and communities as being one of our best and most enduring safeguards against future environmental disasters.
Use of dual escort tugs was mandated by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 for loaded single-hulled oil tankers in the Sound. Although actual practice was to escort all loaded tankers, the dual-escort requirement did not cover double-hulled tankers until federal law was changed in 2010 after a long effort by the citizens' council.
The council and many others feared the dual-escort system would fade as single-hulled tankers were removed from service. While double hulls on tankers can prevent or reduce the magnitude of some oil spills, they do not provide complete protection from a catastrophic spill. The Coast Guard estimated that a double-hulled version of the Exxon Valdez would still have spilled some 4.4 million gallons of crude oil in the Bligh Reef grounding of 1989.
Building on several years of effort, the requirement that all loaded tankers in the Sound—single-hulled and double-hulled alike—be escorted by at least two highly capable towing vessels was institutionalized in Section 711 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, which was signed by President Obama on October 15, 2010.
"Successful passage of the Coast Guard Authorization Act demonstrates the effectiveness of having a unified stakeholder voice participating in crucial decisions about oil transportation safety," said Walter Parker, president of the council when the measure was approved.
Final Report on the Grounding of Ice Scout Tug Pathfinder
Icebergs discharged by Prince William Sound's retreating Columbia Glacier pose a substantial navigational risk to oil tankers in the Sound. Alyeska's Ship Escort and Response Vessel Service routinely conducts ice scouting operations to provide information on the extent and concentration of ice crossing shipping lanes.
On December 23, 2009, the Crowley Maritime Corporation tug Pathfinder was serving as an ice scout in the Sound. Shortly after 6 p.m., an extensive web of human errors combined to cause the 136-foot vessel to run aground on Bligh Reef, some twenty years after the Exxon Valdez met the same fate.
While Crowley almost immediately released considerable information on its investigation of the accident, results of Coast Guard investigations into the grounding were not released until May 2011, nearly a year and a half later. Coast Guard officials said that delays in releasing the reports stemmed from the complexity of the investigation and the need for thorough vetting of information before it was released.
The Coast Guard cited a number of factors that led to the grounding. The vessel's position was not verified at shift changes or during normal operations. Not knowing their actual location on the water affected the crew's situational awareness. The captain did not communicate effectively with the second mate, especially during watch changes. In the minutes leading up to the grounding, the captain ordered full speed ahead to return to port in Valdez without knowing exactly where the Pathfinder was or charting its intended course. As a result, the tug headed straight for Bligh Reef. Both the captain and second mate were facing the rear when the Pathfinder struck the reef.
The Coast Guard made eight safety recommendations to Crowley soon after the incident and before the investigational report was released. Crowley adopted the recommendations.
Performance evaluation for Prince William Sound escort tugs
The Prince William Sound tanker escort tugs are a vital component of the safety system built up since the Exxon Valdez spill, and the council wants to confirm they are the optimum vessels for the job they are assigned to do. To help in this effort, the council has retained a Norwegian firm to evaluate the tugs' capabilities with respect to both human and environmental safety.
Most large vessels in commercial service, especially international trade, undergo numerous engineering and operational certifications by organizations known as classification societies. This helps ensure the vessels meet internationally recognized safety and operating standards.
Tugs have traditionally been used primarily for assisting ships with docking and undocking, and for towing vessels unable to propel themselves. Classification societies have well established procedures for certifying a tug's ability to perform such basic functions.
Because of growing concern over the environmental consequences of maritime accidents, tugs are increasingly being utilized to assist ships navigating sensitive or difficult waters or carrying cargoes of particular hazard. Such escort duty often entails the tug being attached—or tethered—to a very large ship moving at moderate speed. To safely and capably assist a moving vessel of significant weight and momentum, the tug must be able to apply a controlled amount of force in any direction without being rolled over by the advance of the larger ship.
Coincident with the increase in this new type of tug duty, many international classification societies have developed safety and technical standards aimed at quantifying the capability of various tugs to safely perform vessel escort duties. The result of such an evaluation is called an "escort notation." It quantifies
how much force a tug can safely apply to a larger vessel traveling at a given speed.
While British, French, Italian, German, and Norwegian classification societies have developed such standards, none are presently offered by the American Bureau of Shipping, which is the classification society used by Crowley Marine Services, operator of the Prince William Sound escort tugs under contract to Alyeska. This has prompted the council's interest in quantifying the capabilities of the tugs used in the Sound.
Crowley uses two escort tug designs, and the council wants to make sure each is suitable for such service. To accomplish this technical analysis, the council has contracted with Det Norske Veritas, a major Norwegian classification society, to evaluate the performance data available for the two designs and estimate their capabilities in light of the best and most widely accepted safety and operating standards available for escort tugs. Alyeska and Crowley have been cooperative in providing the performance data requested by Det Norske Veritas for the analysis, with a report anticipated by late summer of 2011.
The council hopes this evaluation will enable it to better inform and advise both the users of the system, and our own member entities as concerned stakeholders, on the level of escort capability available today, and on what adjustments, if any, would be appropriate to ensure the safest and best use of the world-class escorts tugs we rely upon to protect the Sound.
Next section: Oil Spill Preparedness and Response