The Observer, July, 2009

May drill tested response readiness in two stages

ConocoPhillips and Alyeska Pipeline, the consortium of oil companies responsible for the oil pipeline and terminal, partnered this spring to conduct a major oil-spill drill in Prince William Sound.

The scenario involved an imaginary tanker called the Polar Intrepid colliding with an unidentified vessel near Glacier Island, spilling just over 5 million gallons of Alaska North Slope crude oil just outside the mouth of Columbia Bay.

At first, the simulated oil slick moved toward Glacier Island and Columbia Bay.  Then the winds shifted and pushed the oil toward Tatitlek Narrows.

The exercise consisted of two multi-day operations, April 7-8, and May 18-20. As would happen in a real event, Alyeska initiated the cleanup activities and then passed control of response operations to the tanker company responsible for spilling the oil, in this case ConocoPhillips.

On May 18, Port Valdez saw some on-water activity with the deployment of a wildlife task force. This was the first exercise of the newly developed tactic in Prince William Sound, and was designed to assess responders’ ability to deal with oiled wildlife. Roy Robertson, citizens’ council project manager, participated as an evaluator.

“This on-water exercise was very valuable,” he said. “It included both industry representatives and agency personnel.”

The main day for ConocoPhillips drill activities was May 20. No on-water activities were involved. Instead, the action took place inside the Valdez Convention and Civic Center, where response managers practiced interacting with each other as they would during a real spill. One representative each from the Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, and the oil industry formed a leadership team known as the Unified Command, which took overall charge of the response.

The citizens’ council was involved in a variety of roles during the drill, including evaluating some activities and participating directly in others. Donna Schantz, acting executive director of the council, took part as a representative on the Regional Stakeholders Committee, which serves as an information conduit between the Unified Command and the communities affected by the spill. This committee included representatives from Eyak, Tatitlek, Cordova, Whittier, the City of Valdez, and Chenega.

“I was impressed with the level of community participation,” Schantz said. “The representatives were provided a venue to convey the issues and concerns from their communities for consideration by the Unified Command.”

One of the council’s biggest concerns during this spill drill scenario was the focus on dispersant use. Dispersants are chemicals applied to the surface oil that force the oil into the water column, thereby diluting it and preventing it from fouling shorelines. The council does not support the use of dispersants as an oil spill response option since they have not been demonstrated to be effective in the cold and often low-salinity waters of Prince William Sound.

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