The Observer, July 2005

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Council wants more work on state’s best available technology report

The citizens’ council has long been an advocate of the use of best available technology for preventing and cleaning up oil spills. The council was instrumental in creating the 1997 state regulations that require a Best Available Technology Conference every five years, and more recently helped work an appropriation through the Alaska Legislature to pay for the first such conference, held in May of last year.

But the event and the state’s draft report on the proceedings didn’t live up to council expectations, according to June 14 written comments from Executive Director John Devens to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

“Overall, the report does not provide substantive information on the technologies available to Alaska spill response efforts,” Devens wrote. “Instead of specific guidelines . . . about specific technologies required for the best possible spill response, the report identifies all the technologies to be included for consideration in contingency plan BAT (Best Available Technology) analyses, with only spotty guidance on potential weaknesses of each technology.”

The council’s comments offered several suggestions for improving the report:

• Create a definitive findings document on the conference. The council said such a document, delineating technologies to be used in contingency plans, would comply with the intent of the regulation and provide a continual driver for companies and spill responders to seek and utilize the most effective technologies available.

• Establish a clear timeline and expectations for the next Best Available Technology Conference. The report said the next conference would be held when needed, but the council noted that regulations require these conferences to be held every five years. That would mean the next one should be held no later than 2009 and possibly as early as 2007, as that is when the second conference would be due on the required five-year cycle after the 1997 start date.

• Provide extended lead and planning time to facilitate diverse vendor participation. In 2004, the council pointed out, an accelerated planning schedule left a very limited window for vendors to be invited, to respond, and make plans to attend. The conference was held near Memorial Day weekend, which is a popular vacation weekend and may have compromised attendance further. The conference report acknowledged that scheduling considerations limited the technologies considered, as those “unavailable” for the conference were deemed “unavailable” for Alaska and were not, therefore, included among the Best Available Technologies.

“We submit that the availability of a vendor to attend a conference is not necessarily a reflection on the availability of that vendor’s technology for use in Alaska oil spill response,” Devens wrote.

• Provide more and better information on the technologies. “The report does not consider technologies from Canada, Japan, the North Sea, or any other foreign nations,” Devens wrote. “We are concerned that this cursory level of research may have resulted in overlooking key technological advances.”

The comment period on the draft report closed in mid-June. As the Observer went to press, the state had not yet issued a final version.