The Observer, September 2004

return to this edition

A note from the Executive Director: Completing the record on the Jack Bay spill

By John S. Devens, PhD.

As always, the citizens’ council is happy to make space available in the Observer for the Alyeska Viewpoint column. In this issue, Alyeska presents its opinion on the Jack Bay diesel spill, which it has every right to do.

However, we believe this Viewpoint column omits some of the facts necessary to give our readers the full context needed to evaluate the effectiveness of Alyeska’s response in Jack Bay. We urged Alyeska to add this information to the column, but the company declined. We decided, after much thought, to provide the missing information in this form.

First, it is important to note that the Pathfinder, which spilled the diesel, is a SERVS contractor and is essentially an Alyeska vessel. And when Crowley Marine Services – the operator of the Pathfinder – requested to conduct its own response to the spill, SERVS instead took responsibility and was hired by Crowley to conduct the response. While SERVS may not have been legally required to respond to the spill, it did take on that responsibility, and so had a duty to perform in the same manner it would for a legally required response.

In addition, the Windy Bay and Jack Bay spills were different in so many respects they are hard to compare. In particular, the Windy Bay spill occurred several miles from the SERVS base with no SERVS response equipment on hand, while the Jack Bay spill occurred during a SERVS drill, with large amounts of equipment and personnel on hand. Thus, if they were to be compared, it would seem a higher recovery rate would have been expected at Jack Bay because of this ready availability of personnel and equipment.

Obviously, Alyeska and the council differ on many aspects of the Jack Bay response. However, we are in complete agreement with Mr. Morgan’s comment above about “the importance of prevention, and the challenge of response once product is in the water.” We look forward to continuing our work with Alyeska toward improvement on both fronts.

– John S. Devens, Ph.D.
Executive Director