Document Author: James R. Payne

Long-Term Environmental Monitoring Program: 2018 Sampling Results and Interpretations

The program samples Port Valdez sediments near the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s Valdez Marine Terminal and at the Gold Creek reference station, as well as intertidal mussel tissues at selected sites in Prince William Sound (PWS) and across the northwest Gulf of Alaska (GOA) region for petroleum hydrocarbon analyses.

Within Port Valdez, three stations, Saw Island (AMT) and Jackson Point (JAP) near the terminal, and the Gold Creek (GOC) reference site (6 km across the Port) are sampled annually. Every five years, the Port Valdez stations are augmented by additional mussel sampling along the path of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS) in Prince William Sound at five stations: Knowles Head (KNH), Sheep Bay (SHB), Disk island (DII), Zaikof Bay (ZAB), and Sleepy Bay (SLB); and along the extended EVOS track at three Gulf of Alaska stations: Aialik Bay (AIB), Windy Bay (WIB), and Shuyak Harbor (SHH).

September 2017 Berth 5 Oil Spill – Sampling Results and Interpretations

As part of the post-spill monitoring efforts, mussels were collected from the same 3 Port Valdez stations annually sampled as part of the PWSRCAC Long Term Environmental Monitoring Program (LTEMP). Collections at Saw Island (SAW) adjacent to Berth 5, Jackson Point (JAC) east of Berth 3, and Gold Creek (GOC) across the port occurred on Sept 29-30 and again, as a follow up, 70 days later on Dec 7-9, 2017. This report describes and illustrates the pre- and immediate post-spill hydrocarbon signatures plus the state of recovery in Port Valdez mussels 70 days after the spill.

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