News & Announcements

Council hires director of external communications

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Brooke Taylor

Brooke Taylor has joined the council’s staff in the new position of Director of External Communications. She will oversee public relations and media for the council.

Taylor has worked in public relations and communications for over 10 years. Most recently, she was the communications director for the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, or AEDC, where she oversaw all marketing, public relations and external communications. Before that, she was the public relations coordinator for the Anchorage Animal Care and Control Center, director of development and public relations for the local nonprofit Victims for Justice, as well as community coordinator for the American Cancer Society’s Alaska Division.

Taylor earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of New Hampshire. She moved to Alaska in 2002 as an AmeriCorps volunteer.

Taylor was awarded an APR (Accredited in Public Relations) certification in 2015. This accreditation program assesses competence in 60 areas of knowledge, skills and abilities in public relations.

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Peer Listening: Building resilience in communities affected by human-caused disasters

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Community Corner

By Lisa Matlock, Outreach Coordinator

Until 2010, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest oil spill disaster in U.S. waters. That March, people around the world turned on the news to see our devastated wildlife and beaches. No one doubted that the environment of Prince William Sound and other downstream areas were hurt. What was not apparent to almost everyone was the short and long term damage to the people in the region’s communities.

Residents of Cordova attend the premier Peer Listener Training in Cordova in the early 2000s.

Technological disasters, such as an oil or chemical spill, a nuclear accident, or a large building fire or collapse, affect communities differently than natural disasters. A technological disaster is caused by humans, and there is a person or persons who can be blamed for the incident. Natural disasters have no one to blame. Natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, can often be predicted and prepared for. Technological disasters are often unexpected.

After the Exxon Valdez spill, the council funded research on how technological disasters affect people living in the area compared to natural disasters.

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From the President and Executive Director: Partnerships build trust and help prevent oil spills

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By Amanda Bauer, President of the Council’s Board of Directors and Donna Schantz, Executive Director.

Amanda Bauer
Donna Schantz

In 1990, just after the worst oil spill the U.S. had ever seen, Congress was tasked with creating legislation that would prevent such a disaster from happening again. One goal of the resulting legislation, the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, was to foster long-term partnership and build trust between industry, government, and local communities. To help accomplish this, the Act mandated regional citizens’ advisory councils to help monitor the oil industry in Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet.

Great visionaries began this experiment in building partnership and trust. While some of these people are no longer with us, we still share the vision that motivated them.

Today, the council still works to find common ground between citizens, the oil industry, and regulators in order to develop the trust necessary to build and maintain the safest marine transportation system in the world.

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From Alyeska: Pipe inspections on terminal finds no repairs needed

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Submitted by Alyeska Corporate Communications.

Alyeska staff implement new technology that can inspect areas of pipe that were previously impossible to inspect. Photos courtesy of Alyeska.

This summer, Alyeska’s multi-year internal inspection program of Valdez Marine Terminal piping included inspecting buried relief system and crude oil piping in and around the East Metering building, and from West Metering to the end of Berth 5. Much of this piping is encased in concrete and was considered “uninspectable” until recent advances in inspection technology.

Crews started in the spring, working in and around the East Metering building where oil enters the Terminal and is measured as part of the pipeline leak detection system. They built containment and installed equipment to allow for system isolation. The roof was modified so cranes could remove large segments of pipe from the building and return them after the inspection.

During a scheduled maintenance shutdown in June, TAPS personnel drained down and isolated the impacted piping around East Metering. Once the shutdown was completed, a contractor cleaned the pipe with special equipment that limited physical entry into the pipe. Crews removed several 90-degree pipe segments to create access points for the crawler pig (see photos) that carries the inspection tool through the pipe. Pigs inspected approximately 2,100 feet of pipe ranging from 16 to 36 inches in diameter.

Alyeska integrity management staff analyzed the data, and found no needed repairs and no significant impact to pipeline or Terminal operations. The piping has returned to service.

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