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Updated tanker oil spill plans for Sound approved in November

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The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation approved the new Prince William Sound Tanker Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan and associated response plans for individual vessels effective November 2, 2012.

These plans—usually known as contingency plans—are prepared by oil tanker operators subject to state approval. The operators specify what they will do to prevent and clean up oil spills from their vessels.

During the review period, the council called for several updates and improvements to the plans.

In 18 pages of formal comments submitted to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on Oct. 12, the council made a number of recommendations for improving the contingency plans before they were given final approval.

One recommendation dealt with downstream response, meaning oil-spill clean-up in communities outside Prince William Sound.

While much of the news coverage of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill focused on effects inside the Sound, the spilled oil was carried out of the Sound by tidal and coastal currents within a week of the grounding on Bligh Reef. Ultimately it spread to Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and even the village of Chignik, some 460 miles southwest of the spill site. While state regulations require clean-up of oil that escapes the Sound, those requirements are much less specific than for oil still within the Sound.

In its comments, the council encouraged the state and the tanker operators “to set a timetable for the implementation of drills and exercises to ensure that all parties are prepared to mount an effective response in downstream communities.”

Another focus of council comments was the plan for using commercial fishing vessels in the clean-up of oil spills in the Sound, including spills that spread outside it. Under state requirements, tanker operators must be prepared to clean up 300,000 barrels of oil within three days. The plan drafted by the operators claims that having 275 fishing vessels under contract will meet that standard.

The council disagreed.

Historically, the operators and the state have agreed that, on any given day, only about 75 percent of vessels on contract can be counted upon to be available and ready to respond in the required time frame. By the council’s estimate, 371 vessels would have to be under contract to make sure enough were ready to respond when actually needed. The council recommended such a requirement be incorporated in the new contingency plan.

The council’s other recommendations dealt with such issues as:
• protection of sensitive areas before spilled oil arrives
• on-water recovery of spilled oil
• incorporation of Best Available Technology
• the incident command system for managing oil-spill cleanups
• availability of tankers and barges of opportunity that can be pressed into service for hauling away oil recovered during a cleanup
• operating in darkness
• Realistic Maximum Response Operating Limitations, meaning the most severe weather and sea conditions in which it is realistically possible to conduct cleanup operations.
The department attempted to address some of the council’s concerns in their final approval document. Their statement noted that some areas of the plan will need to be verified by oil spill drills and exercises, such as:
• nearshore and open water response
• sensitive area protection
• availability, access and training of certain fishing vessels
• tankers and barges of opportunity
• operating in darkness
• availability of specialty vessels

The council is hopeful future exercises will verify the effectiveness of the plan.

Long-time staff member Stan Jones to retire

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Stan Jones, the council’s director of administration and external affairs, will be retiring after more than 17 years of service to the council.

Born in Anchorage, Jones worked in newspapers and public radio before joining the citizens’ council in 1997. His stories for the Anchorage Daily News on the Exxon Valdez spill helped the paper win several regional and national awards.

Jones spent his first nine years at the council as the public information manager and was promoted to the role of director of external affairs in 2006. In 2010, he was further promoted to the position of director of administration and external affairs.

Jones has been instrumental in ensuring that the public and the media had access to accurate information about the council and its issues. During his tenure, he wrote numerous press releases, guest opinions and other educational and promotional pieces. He also managed the yearly recertification applications to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Jones worked closely with the council’s Legislative Affairs Committee to monitor developments in the Alaska Legislature and the U.S. Congress on matters related to the council’s mission. He worked with elected officials such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. Mark Begich, and Rep. Don Young to secure passage of federal legislation to permanently preserve Prince William Sound’s system of double escort tugs for loaded oil tankers.

“Stan Jones is in a league all his own with his ability to articulate to the general public why oil spill prevention and response issues matter,” said Mark Swanson, executive director of the council, “Stan can justifiably share a lot of credit for many advances in prevention and response the council has seen during his tenure.”

Jones co-authored an award-winning book, “The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster,” an oral history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The book featured personal stories about the spill from over 60 people who experienced the disaster first-hand. The book was released in 2009 to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Exxon spill.

Outside of his work at the council, Jones has written a series of four mystery novels about a character named Nathan Active. Nathan is an Inupiat Eskimo and Alaska State Trooper who solves crimes in the fictional village of Chukchi, north of the Arctic Circle.

Jones has quite a few plans post-retirement, including the continuation of the Nathan Active series. He has ideas for more novels, one of which has the working title of “Spenard Road.” He also plans to work two days a week at a federal agency dealing with natural gas projects in Alaska.

“We are going to miss him in the work place but hope to see him around and will certainly be looking for more books from Stan’s ever-fertile pen,” Swanson said.

In March, Jones and his wife, Susan, plan to “try to” drive to the community of Tuktoyaktuk, located on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. The community is only accessible by car during the winter months via the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, featured in the History Channel’s program, Ice Road Truckers.

Fall drills and exercises test industry spill response plans

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By ROY ROBERTSON
Council Project Manager

This past October 3 and 4, Tesoro conducted the annual large-scale oil spill response exercise to test the Prince William Sound Tanker Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan.

The scenario imagined that, during inclement weather, an outbound partially loaded tanker struck an unknown object near Glacier Island and suffered a breached hull. The tanker instantaneously released a simulated 20,000 barrels of North Slope crude oil. The vessel sustained no further damage and the bad weather eased as the response continued with no further release of oil.

The first 12 hours of the exercise was led by Alyeska’s Ship Escort/Response Vessel System, or SERVS, as would happen in the case of a real spill.

After 12 hours, Tesoro’s response team took command of the response efforts, with continued help from SERVS.

The main focus of this year’s exercise was to test the following objectives:
• Communications between the command center in Valdez and the field regarding equipment staging and protection of shorelines, nearshore areas, and wildlife
• Logistical support for tracking the operation and resources
• Use of the fishing vessel oil spill response fleet
• Management, staffing, and set-up of equipment staging areas

The drill was a table-top exercise. No equipment or vessels were deployed except for equipment staging areas in Cordova and Whittier.

Council staff participated in various roles and helped evaluate the responders.

Some lessons were noted by the council evaluators:
• Communications between the equipment staging areas and the command post could be improved.
• An actual incident would require more Internet connections and phone lines at the command center.
• The coordination of the wildlife efforts could be improved to insure a more efficient response to the oiled wildlife.

This exercise provided a very good interaction between the industry and agencies’ response teams.

Terminal exercise conducted in November

On November 8, Alyeska conducted an exercise at the Valdez Marine Terminal.

This exercise imagined a 90,000-barrel crude oil spill into the Port of Valdez due to ruptured piping at one of the terminal’s loading berths. The spilled oil moved toward the city of Valdez, so city officials participated as part of the spill response leadership team, known as the Unified Command. Council staff members served as evaluators or as part of the drill team.

This exercise was a precursor to next summer’s National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program, which will be led by the Coast Guard. There was good participation by the Coast Guard and the state agencies in November’s exercise. One of the high points of this exercise was a change in the trajectory from the scenario in the plan that pushed oil toward the city of Valdez.

This caused response actions that focused on protecting the public. Lessons noted by council evaluators included:
• Notifications need to be improved.
• Reorganization of the Valdez Emergency Operations Center made the space more efficient.
• This drill used real time as opposed to the artificial timeframes used in other drills. This made the activities more realistic.

Whittier spill response exercise

On December 7, SERVS conducted an oil spill response exercise in Whittier.

Local fishing vessels, part of the industry’s oil spill fishing vessel response program, participated in the exercise. All the fishing vessels were Tier 1. Tier 1 boats are the earliest responders in case of a spill.

Participants were able to practice tactics such as exclusion and deflection booming. These tactics would be used in case of a real spill, to direct oil away from environmentally sensitive areas.

Council staff was on hand to observe the drill activities.

Bob Jaynes works hard to protect beloved Sound

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In a conversation with Robert “Bob” Jaynes, his dedication to and love of Prince William Sound is immediately apparent.

Jaynes has been a member of the council’s Port Operations and Vessel Traffic System since 2004, chairing that committee since 2006. He has been operating a boat on the Sound for 22 years, licensed as a captain by the Coast Guard for 18 of those years.

Originally from California, Jaynes’ work first brought him to Alaska in the 1980s while working for the Air Force.

“After working several different jobs, like you do when you’re in your younger years,” Jaynes said, “I finally ended up working civil service at McClellan Air Force Base.”

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