Month: October 2024

Funds available for educational projects related to our mission

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The Council works to educate Exxon Valdez region youth about the environmentally safe operation of the Alyeska terminal and associated tankers. Working with area youth is vital to fight complacency that can arise if new generations of citizens are not continually reminded of the need for ongoing oil spill prevention.

To support this effort, the Council invites proposals for facilitating learning experiences with Exxon Valdez oil spill region youth. Youth in this case can include students from K-12 formal education, homeschool students, informal education programs, and either formal or informal college-level education. In the past, the PWSRCAC has also sponsored projects for teachers that benefit area youth.

Proposals are currently being accepted for projects through the summer of 2025. Deadline is 11:59 p.m. on November 22, 2024.

Download the full Request for Proposals: Youth Involvement – 2025 Summer (PDF – opens in new tab)

Please contact Outreach Coordinator Maia Draper-Reich at education@pwsrcac.org if you would like to be notified when the next proposal period opens. 

Projects should result in better understanding of such topics as: citizens’ oversight, environmental impacts of the operation of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company oil terminal in Valdez and the oil tankers that call there, oil spill prevention and response planning and operation, and/or other topics related to the Council’s mission.

Past and ongoing projects have included:

  • youth stewardship expeditions into the marine environment via sea kayak and other vessels
  • youth monitoring for aquatic invasive species
  • public oil spill science discovery labs
  • oil spill science and technology outreach
  • oil spill education website development
  • K-12 oil spill curriculum writing and testing
  • travel funding for youth presenting oil spill projects at conferences
  • oral history projects related to the Exxon Valdez oil spill
  • other marine stewardship programs for students with an oil spill connection
  • more information about past projects


Questions?

Please contact Outreach Coordinator Maia Draper-Reich at education@pwsrcac.org.

More about the Council:

Future funding opportunities

There are two deadlines each year to submit proposals for educational project funding. You may subscribe to our email list for new Requests for Proposals to receive notifications when these are issued by the Council.

Gulf-Alaska Knowledge Exchange – Resources from PWSRCAC

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The following list contains links to various PWSRCAC information and resources that were mentioned during the National Academies Workshop 1: Gulf-Alaska Knowledge Exchange: Evaluating Socio-economic Impacts of Oil Spills, Advancing Transformative Recovery, and Enhancing Proactive Preparedness.

Please contact Amanda Johnson if you’d like more information about the Council or any of the resources below.

About the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council (PWSRCAC)

  1. Involving citizens: The 1989 Exxon Valdez experience demonstrated that the oil industry could learn from people who live and work in the region affected by the terminal and tanker operations. A moral imperative also emerged from the Exxon Valdez spill: those people with the most to lose from oil pollution must have a voice in the decisions that put their livelihoods and communities at risk.
    • The Council’s 20 Board members represent 19 member entities. The member entities are Alaska communities and organizations that were affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill, including aquaculture, commercial fishing, environmental groups, Alaska Native communities, recreation, and tourism. Board members are volunteers who are nominated by the member entity to serve two-year terms.
    • The Council has five technical committees made up of volunteers who focus on various aspects of the oil transportation industry in Prince William Sound.
    • Effectiveness Of Citizen Involvement – A 2006 white paper by Linda Robinson summarizing how the Council came to be, our responsibilities, and our programs and committees. “We were formed in a climate of adversity, but we have learned that working together in partnership is better and more productive and that it is important to give praise as well as criticism.” – Linda Robinson, 2006. See also: History of the Council
  2. Funding
    • Contract with Alyeska – This contract guarantees annual funding for the Council and ensures absolute independence from Alyeska (the consortium of oil industry companies who owns the Trans Alaska Pipeline and oil terminal in Valdez). The contract is in effect as long as oil flows through the pipeline.
    • Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) – Through OPA 90, Congress mandated citizens’ councils for Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet as a method to combat complacency.

Read more

Request for Proposals: Peer Listener Training Manual Distribution

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Photo of Prince William Sound with water in the foreground and mountains in the background. The focs of the image is the fluke, or tail, of a humpback whale peeking out of the water.

The Council is inviting proposals for a project to aid distribution and improve accessibility of the PWSRCAC’s Peer Listener Training Manual, currently a PDF document available for download on our website. The final work products of this project will include a distribution plan for the manual and development of suggested outreach tools or products.

Submittal Deadline: November 4, 2024 Deadline extended to November 13, 2024
Award Announcement: November 25, 2024

For more information, please download the full RFP: Peer Listener Training Manual Distribution (PDF) along with clarifications listed below.

Questions and clarifications

The following are questions we received about this RFP along with our responses:

Q. Is the distribution plan the only product that needs to be drafted by 1/31, or does this deadline include drafts for all outreach tools?
A. The deadline includes drafts of the distribution plan and outreach tools. We realize this is a short timeline. It was developed with our fiscal year and deadline for materials for our May Board meeting in mind. If necessary, we can reassess the timeline for deliverables during the contracting phase with the contract awardee. If additional time is needed or recommended to produce quality outreach tools based on the distribution plan, please include this information in your proposal, along with details on the amount of time suggested.

Q. Can some outreach tools be suggested for development in a future phase?
A. Yes, we welcome suggestions for outreach tools in a future phase. In fact, we are currently considering this in development of our budget for next fiscal year.

Q. Is there a maximum budget for this work?
A. The budget for this project in our current fiscal year is $35,000.

Q: Will there be two presentations/meetings to attend?
A: Yes, the contractor is asked to provide two presentations of the materials. The presentation to the Scientific Advisory Committee will be needed to request their approval of the materials before going to the Board, and the presentation to the Board will be for final acceptance of the materials and authorization to distribute. In the meantime, the project manager will share the draft materials with the Project Team and SAC and be the point of contact for discussing revisions and feedback.

Timeline:
It’s possible that the due date for final deliverables may be extended beyond Feb 28. This depends on the deadline for materials for the Council’s May Board meeting, which will be sometime in March. Any extensions to that date would be discussed and agreed upon during the contracting phase.

Additional questions: 

If you have additional questions, please contact the project’s manager Danielle Verna via email.

Request for Proposals: Review of testing protocols for the cathodic protection system at the Valdez Marine Terminal

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The Council is inviting proposals for a project to review cathodic protection system testing protocols at the Valdez Marine Terminal (VMT). The goal of this project is to ensure cathodic protection data is being collected in a manner consistent with the Association for Materials Protection and Performance protocols to have an accurate assessment of current cathodic protection levels of steel structures at the VMT.

Download the full RFP for additional details: Request for Proposals: Review of testing protocols for the cathodic protection system at the Valdez Marine Terminal (PDF)

Submittal Deadline: November 15, 2024 DEADLINE EXTENDED: November 21, 2024
Award Announcement: December 15, 2024 Announcement date extended: December 21, 2024

Questions?

Please direct questions about this RFP to the project’s manager, Sadie Blancaflor, by email: mercedes.blancaflor@pwsrcac.org

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