The council’s board of directors met May 7 and 8 in Valdez, Alaska. Agenda items included:
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).
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.Â
Twenty-six years ago today, the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, spilling an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. While the immediate cause of the spill lies with the captain and crew, complacency on the part of the oil industry, regulators, and the public played a part in the disaster.
Many improvements have been made since 1989. Regulators, the oil industry, and citizens have all worked together to improve the prevention and response system in the Sound. Among many other improvements:
Despite improvements, constant vigilance is still needed to prevent a return of the complacency that allowed the Exxon Valdez spill to happen.