April 2015 | Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council

Board of directors held meeting in Valdez

May 11, 2015April 23, 2015 by Amanda Johnson

The council’s board of directors met May 7 and 8 in Valdez, Alaska. Agenda items included:

A new report on the effects of dispersants on Alaska whales
A new report on effects of long-term exposure of Prince William Sound shrimp to low levels of crude oil
An update on the secondary containment system at the terminal
A presentation on Columbia Glacier iceberg monitoring
Updates from shippers and owner companies
Updates from Alyeska on recent activities

The U.S. Coast Guard is seeking public comment on the proposed decommissioning of their oil spill response equipment caches located throughout Alaska

July 24, 2023April 17, 2015 by Alicia Zorzetto

UPDATE: Caches have been funded through September 2016. Please visit Budget cuts threaten spill response equipment in remote Alaska communities for more information.

Original post:

Oil spill cleanup response equipment is pre-positioned in remote areas to help local communities mount an early response to pollution incidents in order to minimize environmental damage. The justification for their removal is mostly due to the cost of maintaining this equipment because of the remote location of many of the sites. Another justification is that many of the caches are co-located with other oil spill response equipment owned by private oil spill response organizations or the State of Alaska. More information on the specific locations of the USCG Alaska-based equipment caches, including a complete inventory of equipment at each location, can be found at:

D17 District Response Advisory Team (DRAT)

The council strongly supports retaining the USCG equipment caches in our region, including Chenega Bay, Cordova, Valdez, Port Graham, Seward, Kodiak, Homer and Kenai. Equipment caches in locations outside our region are equally important for the same reasons, and span from the Pribilof Islands to Unalaska all the way down to Ketchikan (see U.S. Coast Guard map with specific locations).

EPA wants your comments on proposed changes for using chemical dispersants during oil spills

October 7, 2015April 14, 2015 by Amanda Johnson

A vessel sprays water as practice for applying dispersants during an oil spill drill.

Published 4/14/2015:

The Environmental Protection Agency is updating the rules for using chemicals, including dispersants, when responding to oil spills in the United States. The update is intended to address the concerns which arose after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. During that disaster, an estimated 210 gallons of oil was spilled, and over 1.8 million gallons of dispersants were applied to the spill.

The EPA is seeking public comments on these proposed changes. The council thinks that this opportunity to comment on these changes is a rare and important event, and we would like to encourage you to add your voice to the public comments.

To help you understand the issues and provide your own comments, the council has prepared an overview of our comments.