The Observer, September 2006
Volunteer Profile: Original committee member is now its veteran chair
By SUSAN SOMMER
Project Manager
Bill Conley operated a small boat pulling boom and picking up crude oil as part of the massive clean-up effort after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. He joined the citizens’ council when it formed a few months later and has volunteered on the Port Operations and Vessel Traffic Systems Committee ever since. For the last nine years, Bill has served as the committee’s chair.
Bill Conley, chair, Port Operations and Vessel Traffic Systems Committee
Bill spent his college years at the University of Washington in Seattle while working for the airlines.
He first came to Alaska in 1953, and knew he had to return someday. The airline he worked for transferred him to New York City. “But after five years,” says Bill, “I couldn’t stand it any more and Alaska was obviously the best option.”
He moved to Alaska in 1960, where he spent four years as an Alaska State Trooper, and worked in the construction industry in Anchorage and Girdwood, and on the North Slope.
Relocating is nothing new to Bill, whose father was in the Army. Says Bill, “I grew up where the Army sent us.”
In 1973, Bill moved to Valdez and helped build the dock at Old Town used to unload rail car barges from Whittier. He then worked as a contract administrator building the loading docks at the Valdez Marine Terminal. After that, he worked for Alyeska for 19 years, 10 of them in the company’s marine department.
Bill leads the council’s Port Operations and Vessel Traffic Systems Committee, known as POVTS, in monitoring port and tanker operations. The group was instrumental in the original Prince William Sound Risk Assessment, which led to the addition of high-performance tugboats that define the Sound’s world-class tanker escort system. Recent committee projects include helping organize a firefighting symposium; working to implement iceberg detection in the Sound; and monitoring U.S. Coast Guard notices of proposed rule changes. The committee can also now monitor, track, and record the movements of Prince William Sound tankers and other vessels with the Automatic Identification System that was installed in the Valdez office this year.
New committee projects include a study of aquatic noise pollution, and addressing the response gap that exists when tankers are allowed to haul oil across the Sound in weather conditions too severe to permit a response to an oil spill.
The committee, as well as the council, benefits from Bill’s knowledge of tanker operations, tanker loading, and challenges faced by tanker operators. It’s a mutually rewarding relationship; Bill says what he likes most about volunteering for the committee is that it keeps him “informed concerning changes in the shipping industry, the U.S. Coast Guard vessel traffic system, the tugs, and Alyeska.”
Bill also looks forward to working with the council’s new project manager for maritime operations, Bill Abbott. The committee “needs fresh input and a fresh outlook,” he says, and thinks the newcomer can help provide that.
Selected as volunteer of the year in 2001 by his committee, Bill says, “It meant a lot to me to be recognized by my peers for the accomplishments of the POVTS committee while I was chair.”
As a representative of the committee and the council, Bill has attended many meetings regarding what are called potential places of refuge – sheltered locations with deep enough water to permit repairs to a disabled or leaking vessel. He was on the steering committee for a Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force project that established places of refuge guidelines for the West Coast and Canada. A working group was formed by the citizens’ council and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation that established guidelines and selected potential ports of refuge within Prince William Sound.
Bill’s volunteer efforts don’t stop with the citizens’ council. He is materials and supply officer for the Prince William Sound region’s Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla, a group he’s been associated with for 25 years. He also helps at the Valdez Museum Annex by sorting, unrolling/relaxing, and cataloging maps and charts; is president of the Valdez Senior Citizens Center; and volunteers as treasurer and grant writer for the Valdez Historical Preservation and Restoration Society.
For the historical society, Bill helped locate the community’s original cemetery, which was begun in 1897 but abandoned in 1915. They cleared two and half acres, replaced original wooden headboards, rebuilt grave fences, located and put headboards on unmarked graves, and placed informational signs throughout the cemetery.
A few years ago, Bill was elected president of the Valdez Senior Center to help with the organization’s financial difficulties. He served for two years in that capacity, then switched positions there to raise funds for an assisted living center. He is now once more the senior center’s president.
Bill lives with his wife, Betty, in Valdez. Their son, Don, lives with his wife and daughters in Colorado. Bill and Betty like to spend summers cruising and fishing Prince William Sound on their cabin cruiser; then they escape to Seattle for a couple of months during the long Alaskan winter.
The best thing about living in Valdez, says Bill, is the friendly small-town atmosphere, and the recreational opportunities in the Sound, like boating and fishing. The downside? “It’s 600 miles round trip to do any decent shopping.”