The Observer, December 2003

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Tesoro drill tests response to an offshore tanker spill in Gulf of Alaska waters

By Tony Parkin
Project Manager

An October drill gave the citizens’ council the chance to observe how the response to a spill of North Slope crude oil outside Prince William Sound would be organized.

The drill scenario had a Tesoro tanker suffering an explosion – cause unknown – in the Gulf of Alaska over 100 miles east of Kodiak Island and spilling over 20,000 barrels of oil. It was mostly a tabletop drill, meaning few on-water or field activities took place. Instead, the Oct. 23 exercise chiefly tested how the companies and government agencies managing the response would interact.

The drill was managed from the Nikiski command center of Cook Inlet Spill Prevention and Response, a non-profit corporation formed in 1990 to provide oil spill prevention and response capabilities in the Inlet.

A second command post and logistics center was set up in Kodiak, a likely target of oil from a spill like the one in the scenario.

Because the spill was offshore, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. had a relatively small role in the drill. The company’s Valdez Emergency Operations Center was activated to operate as an equipment, personnel and vessel supply source.

To observe the drill, the citizens’ council sent staffers and the drill monitor to Kodiak, Nikiski, and Alyeska’s Valdez operations Center. In addition, staffers participated in the council’s Anchorage and Valdez offices.

The main action took place in the Nikiski command center. Several elements of the drill were of particular interest to the citizens’ council.

Dispersants

According to the scenario, the first day of the spill saw four applications of chemical dispersants by plane. On the day of the drill, which was day two of the spill, the dispersant permit application was re-worked. It took almost five hours for the permit to be approved by the Coast Guard, which holds ultimate responsibility for managing oil-spill response. One question had to do with who held jurisdiction over the spill site, which was more than 100 miles offshore and therefore beyond the State of Alaska’s jurisdiction. Questions were also raised over the monitoring of the effectiveness of the dispersant and whether the oil would be dispersible after being in the water more than 24 hours by the time of the fifth application.

Request for Equipment

Of current interest to the citizens’ council is the method for requesting equipment from Prince William Sound in the event of a spill elsewhere. The council staff in the Valdez operations center monitored the equipment requests as they came in, and the council drill monitor in Kodiak monitored the request when it was made by Alyeska to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation there. This process involves a series of mitigating measures such as identifying replacements for personnel and equipment to be sent to the scene. These measures had to be agreed on before the equipment could be cleared to leave the Sound.

Kodiak activities

In Kodiak, several activities were drilled. One was calling out the fishing vessels that would participate in a real spill response.

Also, the Tesoro logistics team set up a response logistics center and assessed what spill-response resources were available in Kodiak and the surrounding region, and what logistical difficulties could come up in a real event.

This was an interesting drill for the council, as it involved a command center outside Valdez and covered a large geographic area. Overall it appeared to go well with a lot of action in the morning. Situation updates were announced, equipment was sent to the scene of the spill and all sections of the Incident Command System were activated.

Decisions were made about securing the ship, cleaning up the oil and moving the ship to a bay of refuge. Press briefings were held and efforts were made to inform and include the local communities on Kodiak Island in the response.