The Observer, September 2003
Surprise drill demonstrates more surprise drills are needed
By Tony Parkin
Project Manager
At 5 a.m. on June 4, officials of the Coast Guard, the state of Alaska, and SeaRiver Maritime walked into the headquarters of Alyeska’s Ship Escort/Response Vessel System in Valdez and informed the duty officer that a surprise drill was being called, effective immediately.
The scenario: A SeaRiver oil tanker had sprung a leak near Gold Creek and was in the process of spilling 300,000 barrels of North Slope crude into Port Valdez. The assignment: Clean it up in 72 hours.
(In fact, the 72 hours were compressed into a single work day for drill purposes.)
The callout culminated months of secret planning by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the Coast Guard, and the citizens’ council. On the day before the drill, a SeaRiver official was informed in confidence, as were the council staffers who were to act as observers and controllers during the drill. Otherwise, it was a surprise to the participants, as far as can be determined.
Two Transrec barges were mobilized, each capable of corralling, skimming and storing over 100,000 barrels of recovered oil. Also, the Valdez Star oil skimming vessel was mobilized, along with eight fishing vessels and numerous observation vessels and support staff. Alyeska’s Valdez Emergency Operations Center was activated to a limited extent, as was the council office in the center.
Project Manager Tony Parkin demonstrates decontamination procedures using chocolate syrup.
During the drill, observers and controllers from the state, the Coast Guard, and the council were in the field evaluating the response actions of this large equipment deployment. Primary response functions being assessed in the drill were task force management, barge and skimming operations, oil recovery by the Valdez Star, and site control. Site control refers to setting up zones on the barges and the Valdez Star that suffer various degrees of oiling, and restricting movement between the zones. Decontamination and cleaning procedures of the responders and their equipment were also exercised.
This was a large drill involving many responders and three separate cleanup platforms and the results varied tremendously. Generally, the skimming operations on one barge were successful but due to problems in task force management and equipment deployment, the second barge was slower in starting skimming operations. Some confusion over barge loading and decanting was noted and some lack of realism because of a “this is only a drill” mindset.
Overall, the drill was disappointing and did not go as well as was hoped and certainly not as well as previous drills and exercises involving deployment of the same equipment. It produced many lessons learned and showed a need for more intense and constant training for Alyeska’s marine responders. As a result, the state of Alaska determined that another unannounced drill was necessary before the end of 2003.
However, the state decided to include a shipper representative and the manager of Alyeska’s Ship Escort/Response Vessel System in planning this next drill. The state argued that including Alyeska and the shippers would sharpen the drill planning and make the upcoming event a more closely run and scrutinized performance by the Alyeska crews and their contractors.
The citizens’ council has serious concerns about this approach.
“The state can hardly call it a surprise drill if they warn the parties in advance,” said Executive Director John Devens. “We don’t consider this a meaningful test of Alyeska’s readiness to respond to oil spills.”
As the Observer went to press, the planners had set the date and scenario of the next drill. Since the June drill, an increase has been observed in Alyeska’s training activities in Port Valdez and everyone expects a far better showing in the next drill.
During the surpise drill, an escort/response tug ties alongside a TransRec barge.