A new report on the effects of small amounts of hydrocarbons on Port Valdez shrimp is now available. The report was approved by the board of directors during the May board meeting.
News release:Â
Are shrimp caught in Port Valdez contaminated by Alaska North Slope crude oil? The council recently worked with scientists at the National Auke Bay Lab in Juneau to answer that question.
The May issue of The Observer newsletter is now available! Read about the EPA’s efforts to update rules on oil spill dispersants, cleaner emissions from tankers in the Sound, springs found under Columbia Glacier, finally some good news about the recent funding fight for Alaska’s oil spill prevention and response department, and much more:
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).