Interest in citizen oversight grows
Community Corner
By: LINDA ROBINSON, Outreach Coordinator
This summer the council hosted three groups interested in learning about citizen oversight and the lasting effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Sixteen people from groups affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon spill visited Alaska from coastal Louisiana in August. Four press organizations accompanied the tour: the Washington Post, CNN, WWL-TV in New Orleans and NHK-TV, a Japanese public television station based in New York City. Read more about this visit on page 1 of this Observer.
In July, four visitors from Kazakhstan came to Alaska to learn about the council. Askar Kushkunbayev, Svetlana Anossova, Ulan Sarkulov and Kirill Ossin spent time visiting Anchorage and Valdez. They met with council staff and agencies in Anchorage, and then traveled to Valdez to meet with other agencies, council staff, and industry representatives.
Kazakhstan, with a population of between 15 and 16 million, is the ninth largest nation in the world, with an area of just over a million square miles. It is a major producer of oil and gas, with many other extraction industries such as gold, uranium, zinc, copper, iron ore and coal. New oil fields and planned expansion of production may produce up to 3 million barrels per day within a few years.
When Kazakhstan was formed after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, foreign companies came in and acquired long-term contracts that didn’t include substantial environmental constraints.
Recently, $80 million in funds derived from oil industry operations have been set aside to be invested in social infrastructure. Kushkunbayev and the other Kazahk visitors are working on this as part of a working group established in 2009. This working group, which includes industry representatives, will look at environmental issues, and determine how to spend the money. Our visitors were particularly interested in Dr. Steve Picou’s work for the council on socioeconomic impacts of technological disasters.
One of their concerns is future offshore development in the Caspian Sea region of Kashagan. There are expected to be approximately 240 rigs on more than 100 manmade islands built in the area. Information from the government and resource extraction industries on this and other projects has been difficult for the public to access.
In July, board member John French, and staffers Mark Swanson, Amanda Johnson and I met with a number of organizations in Seward. French organized the agenda, which included meetings with the Alaska SeaLife Center, representatives of the city of Seward, and the Marine Science Center. The group was also given a demonstration of the Alaska Maritime Simulator at the Alaska Vocational Technical Center. The simulator consists of a state of the art computer with a large bank of screens and a mock control panel. The setup mimics real-time ship navigation and allows students to practice maneuvering a ship under a variety of conditions. Swanson gave a presentation about the work of the citizens’ council at a work session of Seward city council.
Mark Swanson attended the Alaska Municipal League Conference in mid-August in Kodiak, and met with council members Jane Eisemann, Al Burch and Iver Malutin.
Board member Pat Duffy and I will be attending the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce trade show September 20-22 in Juneau.
Plans are under way to take the council information booth to the Clean Gulf conference, October 19-20 in Tampa, Florida. This conference will focus on the Gulf of Mexico spill so we plan to organize as much information as possible on the council and its projects to share with those in attendance.
On behalf of the council, I want to thank the volunteers, staff, agency and industry people who were so gracious with giving their time and information to help our visitors this summer.