Online Observer

Council tours tanker Overseas Martinez at the Valdez Marine Terminal

by

By ALAN SORUM
Council Project Manager

Overseas Martinez moored at the terminal. Photo by Alan Sorum.
Overseas Martinez moored at the terminal.

On October 27, Board President Amanda Bauer, Executive Director Mark Swanson, Director of Programs Donna Schantz and Project Manager Alan Sorum were given the opportunity to tour the tanker Overseas Martinez at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Arrangements for the visit were made by Marine Superintendent Patrick Callahan of Overseas Shipping Group, commonly known as OSG, who traveled from Tampa, Florida to Nikiski and rode the tanker over to Valdez to conduct the tour. Mr. Callahan provided the group with a unique opportunity to become better acquainted with the OSG fleet.

The Overseas Martinez is a 600 foot long tanker operated for Tesoro by OSG. Built in 2010, the tanker can carry 338,447 barrels of cargo. It calls at Valdez, Nikiski and ports along the West Coast. This tanker was built at the Aker Shipyard in Philadelphia as a crude oil and clean product tanker. The vessel received extensive retrofits to provide extra insulation and heating for the rigors of Alaska service.

A number of interesting things were noted about the Overseas Martinez. The vessel is powered by a large, two-cycle diesel engine. Two-cycle engines produce power at every revolution of the crankshaft. This ship uses direct drive to turn its propeller shaft and prop. The engine needs to be physically stopped and restarted in the opposite direction to reverse course. This means advanced planning becomes important during maneuvering.

Council representatives learn about the tanker. Photo by Alan Sorum.
Council representatives learn about the tanker.

Interestingly, all the rainwater that collects on the deck of the Overseas Martinez is collected and treated and prior to being discarded to prevent potential sheens. During loading operations, the vessel employs a hull stress calculator to ensure its 46,000 tons of cargo is loaded in a sequence that does not damage the tanker. Because of its concerns with potentially illegal overboard discharges, the vessel is equipped with a sentinel system that reports any discharge of water or other substance through the hull to the water to OSG’s management team in Tampa, Florida.

This is the first visit the council has had on a tanker moored at the Valdez Marine Terminal in a long time. In the recent past, Polar Tankers has graciously allowed firefighter tours during the Marine Firefighting Symposium at the Valdez Container Terminal. We thank Captain George Kugler and Chief Engineer Mr. Paul Russell for the informative tour and hospitality. The visit would not have been possible without the help of Marine Superintendent Patrick Callahan.

Why commemorate the Exxon Valdez oil spill 25 years later?

by

By LISA MATLOCK
Outreach Coordinator

Lisa Matlock
Lisa Matlock

In 2013, Alaska and Alaskans lost Prince William Sound advocate, Stan Stephens, a constant voice for safe oil transportation in Alaska. Also this past year, “Homer”, the last surviving sea otter rescued from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, died at her aquarium home. Firsthand Exxon Valdez oil spill memories are fading. And who wants to dwell on such a terrible event?

The tragic and emotionally wrenching life-changing personal experiences of those who responded to the Exxon Valdez oil spill helped motivate a generation of council members and partners to prevent another major oil shipping disaster in the state. Oil spill prevention measures, such as double hulled tankers and dual escort tug systems for shipping, oil spill response drills and Geographic Response Strategies that take into account local knowledge when planning for the protection of sensitive areas, safe marine terminal operations, and long term environmental monitoring, all contribute to minimizing complacency, and the potential for another major oil spill.
But memories of an event, even such a disastrous one, only last so long.

The council remains committed to working with industry and regulatory agencies to safely transport oil through Alaskan waters. Oil spill prevention measures at work in Prince William Sound have extended to other parts of the country and world, helping to improve the safety of oil shipping globally. By remembering what happened during the Exxon Valdez oil spill 25 years later, we hope to motivate Alaskans to continue the unending hard work of oil spill prevention. Oil spill prevention measures are what future generations of people and the marine environment need to avoid the destructive and expensive experience of another major spill.

Lisa Matlock and Steve Rothchild took a ride aboard the escort tug Tan'erliq on October 25, which was escorting a tanker from the terminal. They experienced gusts up to 45 knots and 10 ft seas. Many thanks to Alyeska’s SERVS and the crew of the Tan'erliq for the opportunity!
Lisa Matlock and Steve Rothchild took a ride aboard the escort tug Tan’erliq on October 25, which was escorting a tanker from the terminal. They experienced gusts up to 45 knots and 10 ft seas. Many thanks to Alyeska’s SERVS and the crew of the Tan’erliq for the opportunity!

The following events are planned to commemorate the spill this year, to honor those who faced it, and to remind those who were not there why the council and others interested in the fate of our region strive to keep it from ever happening again.

  • Public Presentations: Throughout the month of March, the council is offering public presentations about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the good that has come out of it and concerns for the future over 25 years to museums and libraries in the region. Dates so far include:
    • March 4 at the Valdez Museum
    • March 11 at the U.S. Forest Service in Cordova, in partnership with the Prince William Sound Science Center
    • March 24 at the Loussac Library in Anchorage

We are working with several other communities, including Seward, Kodiak, and Homer. More information will be posted on our website as it becomes available. If you are interested in hosting a presentation in your community, contact: lisa.matlock@pwsrcac.org. UPDATED SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

  • Project Jukebox: The council is working to preserve the voices of twenty people impacted by the oil spill online through the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program’s Project Jukebox: www.bit.ly/ProjectJukebox.
  • School Programs: The council recently revised its K-12 Oil Spill Curricula to both meet new standards and help students who may have never experienced a technological disaster to understand the importance of continued oil spill prevention. Teachers who would like to request a live classroom program using the new curricula or a link to its activities, please email: lisa.matlock@pwsrcac.org.    

Recent inspections for potential pipe corrosion at terminal show encouraging results

by

By TOM KUCKERTZ
Project Manager for Terminal Operations

Some of the council’s concerns regarding the unknown condition of the crude oil piping at the Valdez Marine Terminal have been answered by inspections performed this summer by Alyeska.

Causeway to Berth 4 at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Scaffolding has been installed and covered with plastic tarps to keep Alyeska's inspection crews and exposed piping dry during inspection. Photo by tom Kuckertz.
Causeway to Berth 4 at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Scaffolding has been installed and covered with plastic tarps to keep Alyeska’s inspection crews and exposed piping dry during inspection. Photo by tom Kuckertz.

In 2012, a routine inspection by Alyeska personnel of the 20-inch vertical riser pipes that feed crude oil to the loading arms on Berth 4 at the terminal revealed the existence of serious corrosion in some of the girth welds. Girth welds are welds that extend around the diameter of a pipe, typically used to join two sections of pipe.

Following this discovery in 2012, the remaining riser pipes on Berths 4 and 5 were subjected to additional inspections. More occurrences of vertical pipe girth weld corrosion were found and repaired. The cause of the corrosion in that particular region was attributed to water collecting under the pipe’s insulation in combination with a missing anti-corrosion paint coating in the vicinity of the girth weld.

Read more

New outreach coordinator joins council staff

by
Lisa Matlock
Lisa Matlock

Lisa Matlock joined the council’s staff on August 12. Matlock brings almost twenty years of experience in coastal Alaska education and outreach to the position.

Originally from southwestern Colorado, she is a “green brat,” a term for kids whose parents work for natural resource agencies, so she bounced around beautiful places in the west during her childhood. Her family moved to Alaska to 1974. They returned to the lower 48 in 1976, but Matlock never got over her time in Alaska.

Always torn between a love for science and a love for communications, she majored in English and minored in Biology at the University of Chicago. She returned to Alaska for graduate school at the University of Alaska Anchorage, specializing in nature writing and science communications. This background led to her nearly two decades of work for natural resource agencies in the state.

After working for several years as a seasonal park ranger in Anchorage, Skagway, and Gustavus, Matlock’s first permanent job was in Seward at Kenai Fjords National Park in 2000. She worked as the park’s education specialist on tour boats in the fjords and at Exit Glacier. She was part of the Ocean Alaska Science and Learning Center, a research and education partnership between the National Park Service and the Alaska SeaLife Center, from its inception.

Matlock was the education specialist for Sitka National Historical Park from 2003-2007. There she interpreted the rich and emotional connections between land and water, people and places. The park’s 100 acres in Sitka includes totem poles in the rainforest and the Russian Bishop’s House. For parts of each summer, Matlock worked on the M/V Spirit of Endeavor as an onboard naturalist for Cruise West. She interpreted the phenomenal marine environment and special communities along the Inside Passage from Ketchikan to Juneau during 8-day cruises.

From 2007-2012, Matlock traveled a huge swath of Alaska’s coast, doing education and community outreach for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Matlock worked in communities both large and small doing wildlife education, including oil spill-related subjects, during this time. Most recently, Matlock worked as an outreach specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage. For the past year she did a variety of communication projects for the relatively new Landscape Conservation Cooperative partnerships.

Matlock is very excited to be working for the council and looks forward to meeting those who live in communities new to her. She also is excited about reconnecting with those she has worked with in the past in a new capacity. Look for her visiting the region’s communities this fall and winter.

Skip to content