Next council board of directors meeting to be held in Valdez

The council’s next board of directors meeting is scheduled for May 2 and 3, 2013 at the Valdez Convention and Civic Center in Valdez, Alaska.

The draft meeting agenda and documents supporting this meeting have been posted online:  May 2013 Meeting of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council.

There are a number of important items requiring board action and attention at this meeting.  Board members should receive copies of the meeting notebook in the mail.  To complete council business efficiently, board members are asked to review meeting materials prior to the meeting.

Board meetings are open to the public, and an opportunity for the public to provide comments is provided at the beginning of each meeting.

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Marine Firefighting Symposium is coming to Seward

The next Marine Firefighting for Land Based Firefighters Symposium will be held in Seward on October 8-10, 2013.

Firefighters practice responding to a fire onboard a vessel during the 2011 Marine Firefighting Symposium.
Firefighters practice responding to a fire on board a vessel during the 2011 Marine Firefighting Symposium.

Through this program, firefighters and responders from Alaska coastal communities will be provided hands-on classroom and field training opportunities that are tailored for the challenges faced in Alaska.

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New website with new features

Welcome to the newly redesigned home on the web for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council. This new site is designed to help us keep you better informed about our work.

The site has a number of new features that you may find helpful:

  • You can now subscribe to news and announcements by email or RSS feed.  To subscribe by email, enter your email address at the bottom of any page on the site.  An RSS feed link is located in the sidebar of each page.  We post new items several times per week. 
  • You can search for individual reports and documents by using the “Search reports and documents” feature in the Resources section of this site. 
  • The most popular pages are now highlighted in the sidebar of each page.
  • A list of upcoming meetings now appears in the sidebar on each page.
  • You can now subscribe to new Requests for Proposals by email or RSS feed. To subscribe by email, visit the Requests for Proposals page in the “Our Work” section of this site. An RSS feed link is located in the sidebar. 

The new site will also allow us more easily manage the more than 3000 (and growing!) documents accessible on this website.

Thank you and we hope you find the new site and features helpful.

Wave-induced delays in cargo transfer

The Council’s Port Operations and Vessel Traffic Systems (POVTS) committee members have been aware of severe historical wind events that have caused the terminal’s operators to halt transfer of oil to a tanker because the required containment boom around the tanker could not be maintained. This boom is required in order to contain any oil that might be spilled during transfer of cargo. High winds and the resulting waves can adversely affect a boom.

Booms placed around tankers as they are being loaded presents a first line of defense in preventing the spread of oil in an inadvertent spill. Heavy weather limits the effectiveness of booms and impacts loading operations. Developing better information concerning the relationship between weather and loading, with a focus on potential mitigation measures can only help to improve safety during loading operations.

The report titled “Wave induced Delays in Cargo Transfer at the Valdez Marine Terminal – Berth 4” by Marie Kartezhnikova, Orson Smith and Peter Olsson is a preliminary investigation for the council of wave-related difficulties in boom deployment and effectiveness at Berth 4 of the VMT.

2012 Wave-induced Delays In Cargo Transfer At Valdez Marine Terminal Berth 4

The report was, in part, an academic exercise. Kartezhnikova was a graduate student enrolled in the University of Alaska Anchorage, studying the design of ports and harbors. Smith is the instructor of that course and a member of the council’s POVTS committee. Olsson is the Alaska State Climatologist at the UAA’s Environment and Natural Resources Institute. Olsson provided expert opinion on wind climate and origins of extreme wind events at the site. None of the authors were compensated for this work. Council financial support was limited to travel expenses for a site visit in October 2012.

Kartezhnikova presented the findings in this report at the council’s Science Night event on December 13, 2012.

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