Online Observer

Council applauds decision to keep public engagement tool for spill response in Alaska

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Recent council concerns about a proposed change to Alaska’s spill response plan have been alleviated for now. However, the council is following a new proposal that also has the potential to affect stakeholder input.

In a letter to the council on September 1, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, or ADEC, announced that its proposal to change the Regional Stakeholder Committee had been withdrawn. The Regional Stakeholder Committee is a vital tool for public involvement during oil spills, and has been effective for communication during spill drills and exercises in Prince William Sound for over a decade.

Early in 2016, the Alaska Regional Response Team, or ARRT, a group made up of 15 different federal and state agencies that share responsibilities for managing oil and chemical spill responses in Alaska, proposed changes that could have reduced the council’s, and the public’s, access to important information about a spill. The change would also have reduced citizens’ input to spill response leaders.

Involving citizens was recognized by Congress and Alaskans as an important aspect in oil-spill laws and regulations that were overhauled after the Exxon spill.

During the public comment period that followed, the council and several local communities and organizations supported keeping the committee as it was, rather than splitting stakeholders into two groups. One of the new groups, which would have included the council, would have received far less information and access to decision-makers than the other.

ADEC stated that the workgroup that put the proposal forward met on August 31, at which time a determination was made to withdraw the proposal.

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Kate Morse: Volunteer helps connect new generations with council’s mission

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Morse and her husband Andy will soon be welcoming twin girls into their little Cordova family. Photo courtesy of Kate Morse.

Kate Morse was nine years old and living in Pennsylvania when the Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef in 1989. Although she didn’t directly experience the spill personally, she now works to bring the spill to life for a new generation.

Morse has been the Program Director for Cordova’s Copper River Watershed Project since 2008. The organization is based in Cordova but does work throughout the Copper River watershed drainage area, which includes not only Cordova, but Glennallen, Kenny Lake, Mentasta Lake, and Paxson. Morse says the area is about the size of West Virginia, and the population of the region depends on healthy salmon runs.

“It takes an entire watershed to support healthy salmon populations due to their complex life cycle from salt to fresh water and back to salt water again,” says Morse. “Our education programs really aim at getting people to see themselves as part of a watershed community, rather than just the stream in their backyard.”

She says her organization tracks the council’s projects closely because the Trans-Alaska pipeline runs through the Copper River basin.

“There are major river systems in the area,” Morse says. “The prospect of removing oil from a glacial river, how the oil would contaminate the entire water column and the glacial sediments, it would be impossible to clean it up.”

“Prevention is definitely the key.”

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Council hires director of external communications

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Brooke Taylor

Brooke Taylor has joined the council’s staff in the new position of Director of External Communications. She will oversee public relations and media for the council.

Taylor has worked in public relations and communications for over 10 years. Most recently, she was the communications director for the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, or AEDC, where she oversaw all marketing, public relations and external communications. Before that, she was the public relations coordinator for the Anchorage Animal Care and Control Center, director of development and public relations for the local nonprofit Victims for Justice, as well as community coordinator for the American Cancer Society’s Alaska Division.

Taylor earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of New Hampshire. She moved to Alaska in 2002 as an AmeriCorps volunteer.

Taylor was awarded an APR (Accredited in Public Relations) certification in 2015. This accreditation program assesses competence in 60 areas of knowledge, skills and abilities in public relations.

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Peer Listening: Building resilience in communities affected by human-caused disasters

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Community Corner

By Lisa Matlock, Outreach Coordinator

Image of the harbor at Cordova, Alaska. The original peer listener manual was developed after a study of the social effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the community of Cordova.
The Peer Listener Training Manual (updated in 2023) can help you be a better listener.

Until 2010, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill was the largest oil spill disaster in U.S. waters. That March, people around the world turned on the news to see our devastated wildlife and beaches. No one doubted that the environment of Prince William Sound and other downstream areas were hurt. What was not apparent to almost everyone was the short and long term damage to the people in the region’s communities.

Technological disasters, such as an oil or chemical spill, a nuclear accident, or a large building fire or collapse, affect communities differently than natural disasters. A technological disaster is caused by humans, and there is a person or persons who can be blamed for the incident. Natural disasters have no one to blame. Natural disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes, can often be predicted and prepared for. Technological disasters are often unexpected.

After the Exxon Valdez spill, the council funded research on how technological disasters affect people living in the area compared to natural disasters.

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