The Observer, September 2003
Council wants tanker rescue tests held in realistic Hinchinbrook weather conditions
The citizens’ council has called on oil shipping companies and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. to conduct towing exercises in the kind of harsh weather that oil-laden tankers often encounter at Hinchinbrook Entrance, where they pass from Prince William Sound into the Gulf of Alaska.
Loaded tankers are allowed to make the Hinchinbrook passage if seas are less than 15 feet and winds are less than 45 knots (about 52 m.p.h.). But the ability of Alyeska’s escort tugs to rescue a disabled tanker has been tested only in much milder weather. The company says rescues at closure conditions are too risky to attempt except in a real emergency, but maintains that engineering analyses and the trials in mild weather demonstrate that its tugs could successfully rescue a tanker in closure conditions.
The council’s position is that it is environmentally unsafe to move oil in conditions in which it is unsafe to practice saving disabled tankers.
Alyeska and the tanker companies do conduct towing exercises, but usually in good weather, as in this photo from August 2002.
“How can it be expected that a rescue can be effected at closure conditions in a safe manner if crews are not experienced and practiced in operating in such conditions?” Executive Director John Devens wrote in a May 14 letter to Alyeska and other participants in the Valdez oil trade. The council board voted to seek the exercises at its quarterly meeting in Valdez earlier that month.
After the letter was sent, a working group was formed to try and bring about the heavy-weather exercises. While testing criteria have been developed, as of Observer press time, one exercise had been conducted in calm conditions.
“We’re going to be pushing hard for meaningful towing exercises as the winter weather sets in after the autumn equinox,” said Project Manager Tony Parkin.