Long-time Alaskan, and Council volunteer for over 16 years, Cathy Hart has always had a lot of different irons in a lot of different fires. Her passion for telling stories with photographs winds through almost everything she does, including her work on the Council’s Information and Education Committee.
Cathy Hart is a member of the Council’s Information and Education Committee. The committee supports the Council’s mission by fostering public awareness, responsibility, and participation through information and education. The committee sponsors projects such as Masters of Disaster, a special event for kids of all ages to learn about topics related to the Council’s mission. At a recent event, Hart (center) taught Kodiak students about oil spill response.
This passion ignited early, not long after her father’s job as an engineer in the oil industry moved the family to Alaska in the late 1960s. The teenaged Hart was exploring her new home state when she spotted an eagle.
“I watched him dive down and get something on the ground,” she recalls.
She was entranced and wanted to capture that moment. She soon got her first camera as a gift from her father.
She found she was good at capturing action shots. She photographed kids’ sports, theater, and dance, and sold the images. Her passion was for the outdoors though.
Last year, researchers from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, or SERC, partnered with the Council to conduct the largest survey of non-native benthic marine invertebrate species in Prince William Sound since 2003.
The work is part of a larger survey being conducted by Dr. Gregory Ruiz and a team of researchers from SERC to document non-native species in ports and bays throughout the United States. The researchers have also recently surveyed in California, southeast Alaska, and other sites along the Pacific coast of the U.S. Researchers anticipate surveying Cook Inlet in 2025.
Researchers have completed a new analysis that will help protect marine birds in Prince William Sound from oil spills. Anne Schaefer and Dr. Mary Anne Bishop from the Prince William Sound Science Center compiled data from surveys in Prince William Sound conducted during March between 2007-2014 and 2018-2023.
By Board President Robert Archibald and Executive Director Donna Schantz
Nothing can change the damage that resulted from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Since our creation, the Council’s goal has always been to try to ensure it never happens again, at the same time making sure we are prepared with a strong response system in case prevention measures fail. We know that the more you tackle challenging issues and prepare ahead of time, the greater the likelihood of reducing the potential damage.
Our volunteers and staff put in countless hours fulfilling our mandates outlined in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and our contract with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.
While much work continues to be done, we are still seeing concerning trends in the loss of experienced personnel, high attrition rates, and budget and staffing cuts in industry and the associated regulatory agencies. The Council has been raising concerns about the diminishment of agency oversight at the Valdez Marine Terminal for over a decade. We hope that a review of the adequacy of the present regulatory oversight of terminal operations, currently being conducted by the federal Government Accountability Office, will highlight any deficiencies that need to be addressed. And, while we are encouraged by Alyeska’s response to our 2023 report “Assessment of Risks and Safety Culture at Alyeska’s Valdez Marine Terminal,” we diligently continue to try to move all its recommendations forward.
We know that a strong regulatory structure benefits development in our state. It also is the cornerstone of protection for our people, communities, economies, and environment. After years of regulatory diminishment, we now need to see the actions necessary to not only stop the cutbacks, but also then restore these agencies to the levels put in place based on lessons learned from the 1989 oil spill.
While the Council is always ready to listen to what industry and regulators are willing to share with us, we will also continue to closely watch what they do. And that is what we are here to do: we listen, we watch, and we advise. We sometimes say that “Trust, but verify” is our unofficial motto. We want to trust that the problems we are speaking out about will be addressed, but will not stop our inquiries and our work until we can verify that they have been.
We know that industry and regulatory agencies have the same goal in mind as the Council: the safe transportation of oil through our region. Our role in that shared goal is defined by and dependent on citizen engagement. We must watch what is happening – the decisions being made, risks being assessed, safety measures implemented – and never be afraid to speak up. Those with the most to lose from oil pollution must have a voice in the decisions that can put their livelihoods and communities at risk. We will continue to work hard to be that voice.
