The University of Alaska Anchorage’s KRUA radio interviewed our executive director Mark Swanson last week about the council, our history and purpose, our research, council successes such as tanker escorts and much more.  Listen to the interview:
KRUA Interview with Mark Swanson
Many thanks to KRUA Radio, 88.1FM in Anchorage for permission to post the audio clip. Â KRUA’s website: Â KRUA 88.1FMÂ
Articles from the January issue of The Observer newsletter are now online:
This year, the council is sponsoring a project to study Columbia Glacier, looking at its retreat and loss of ice. The council hopes to learn more about possible future effects of icebergs on tanker traffic in Prince William Sound.
Columbia Glacier has long been of interest to the council. The glacier has been in a state of rapid retreat since the early 1980s, the reduction in mass has been mostly in the form of calving icebergs. These icebergs sometimes drift with the current and the wind into the vessel traffic lanes used by oil tankers in Prince William Sound. In 1989, the Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef while avoiding ice in the tanker lanes.
In the late 1990s, the council helped fund the Columbia Glacier Iceberg Monitoring Project, pioneering research first conducted by Austin Post and Wendell Tangborn. That project studied the potential for calved ice to damage oil tankers.
This year, the council is sponsoring a continuation of the original project, conducted by two well-known glaciologists, Tad Pfeffer and Shad O’Neel. Pfeffer is regarded for his work in glacial retreat and for studying tidewater glaciers worldwide. O’Neel has been extensively involved with research conducted at Columbia Glacier.
As part of this project, Pfeffer and O’Neel recently began looking at available data for Columbia Glacier, summarizing the current knowledge concerning the retreat of Columbia Glacier, especially in the interval since the original iceberg project. The two researchers were given access to Columbia Glacier observations since the 1970s and data acquired by Post and Tangborn.
Pfeffer and O’Neel will then attempt to document the current rate of iceberg calving and drift trajectories. They intend to reevaluate the concept of calculating glacier retreat rates using photographic records of daily changes in the terminus, or end of the glacier. They will also reevaluate the “mass balance,” or the difference between accumulation and melting of the glacier, and the iceberg production model developed by Post and Tangborn in the 1990s.
The researchers hope to determine the best estimate of glacial retreat and volume loss, evaluate how the icebergs move into the Sound and describe the passage constraints of icebergs over the submerged portion of the Columbia Glacier moraine.
Ultimately, over the next year, Pfeffer and O’Neel hope to develop a forecast for iceberg production by Columbia for the next ten years.
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.