The Observer, July 2005

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Report analyzes standards for risk assessments in Prince William Sound

The citizens’ council is making available a report by Dr. Martha Grabowski on risk assessments, particularly as applied to possible changes to the tanker escort system in Prince William Sound.

The 32-page report, “Prince William Sound Risk Assessment Overview,” can be downloaded from the council web site, www.pwsrcac.org.

Grabowski, an expert in marine safety, is a program director and professor at Le Moyne College. She is also a research professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Both schools are in New York. Grabowski was a contractor during the mid-1990s risk assessment that led to today’s system of escort tugs in the Sound.

The council commissioned the new report because of possible reductions to the tug escort fleet. At present, each laden tanker leaving Valdez is escorted by two rescue and response tugs until it reaches the Gulf of Alaska. But the tanker operators have started discussions with regulators about cutting the requirement to one escort, and have also said they plan to conduct a risk assessment to determine how any changes would affect safety.

The council believes the two-escort requirement should remain in force, and that, consequently, no risk assessment is needed. It regards the new report as a tool for evaluating any proposal to conduct one.

Grabowski’s report concludes that a risk assessment for Prince William Sound could take three years, and should analyze not only the technology employed, but also human factors.

The Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 was a classic human-factors accident. No equipment malfunctions were involved when the tanker hit Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil.