The Observer, May 2005

return to this edition

Citizen oil-spill oversight is approved for Washington state

Tankers carrying North Slope crude oil will soon have citizen oversight at both ends of the trip from Valdez to Puget Sound. Washington lawmakers late last month voted to set up a citizen-dominated council to advise the governor on oil-spill prevention and cleanup in the state’s waters.

The measure passed despite opposition from, not just oil companies, but Washington’s Department of Ecology as well.

Calls for a group modeled on the citizens’ councils in Alaska grew after a 1,500-gallon crude oil spill at the south end of Puget Sound last October. Federal officials have blamed a ConocoPhillips tanker for the spill, a charge denied by the company.

Deputy Director Marilyn Leland testified on the makeup and work of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council during hearings in the Washington legislature.

Washington’s Oil Spill Advisory Council, as it will be called, may have been inspired by the councils for Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet, but it will differ in many respects. In Alaska, the member entities of the councils choose their own representatives. In Washington, all 16 members of the council will be chosen by the state’s governor.

In Alaska, no representatives from the oil or shipping industries sit on the councils. In Washington, the oil industry will have a seat and the marine industry will have two.

The Washington group’s initial budget is being set at $200,000 a year, enough for one full-time and one part-time staffer, plus travel and per diem for board members. In Alaska, the Prince William Sound council has a staff of 19, mostly full-timers, and a budget of about $3 million a year. Much of the budget is spent on expert consultants to advise the council on the many complex technical questions raised by crude-oil transportation issues.

“It’s an important first step, even if it is a modest one,” said John Devens, executive director of the Prince William Sound council. “We’ll help however we can to make citizen oversight work for our friends in Puget Sound.