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.
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
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.
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, 2024Deadline extended to November 13, 2024
Award Announcement: November 25, 2024
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.
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.
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
Members of the public watch vessels practice pulling oil spill boom in proper formation. This formation would be used to collect oil during an oil spill.
The Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council held a tour for locals to observe the annual oil spill response training for fishing vessels in Whittier, Alaska, on Sept. 30, 2024. This has been an annual event since 2016, rotating through several communities in the region, though it was postponed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Whittier community was invited to join the council from 11:30 to 2 p.m., on a Stan Stephens Cruises vessel to observe the training. Over 90 members of the public participated in the event, including students from the Whittier Community School.
Whittier resident, Chase, age 12, stated about the event, “There are so many people participating and wanting to learn on this boat, learning about this to help protect our environment. Plus watching all those boats do their job in helping protect the environment. I think it’s pretty cool.”
The local fishermen and women participating in the training are contracted by the Ship Escort Response Vessel System, also known as SERVS, to respond in the event of an oil spill from a Prince William Sound tanker or the Valdez Marine Terminal. SERVS is Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s oil spill removal organization and coordinates annual spill response exercises in multiple Southcentral Alaska communities, including Whittier.
This Council event helps keep communities informed on what oil spill prevention and response measures are in place in Prince William Sound and downstream communities, especially those involving their local fishers. Whittier residents learned about oil spill response technology, tactics and how this program helps Alyeska operate safely in Prince William Sound. Narrators from both the Council and Alyeska were on board to describe the activities so that participants could better understand the training. We would like to thank our partners, Alyeska/SERVS and Stan Stephens Glacier & Wildlife Cruises, for helping to support this event.
“I think that’s very cool for [students] to see people from their community taking part in an activity like this,” said Whittier school teacher Jennifer Childress. “Knowing what a special and important place Prince William Sound is, it’s important to have people be trained and ready to go in case an awful event like an oil spill happens. To have local people involved in that and as a teacher to have students see that they could have a place in that and be a part of that as they get older, is very important.”
Alyeska’s contracted fishing fleet is the backbone of their oil spill response system. It is essential to the system operating as it was designed to do and part of what makes the Prince William Sound system world-class. These contracted vessels and their crews help ensure the most comprehensive oil spill response measures are in place for both open water and nearshore resources. A major lesson of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was that incorporating local mariners into the spill response system helps ensure a quick, efficient and effective response.
Since the inception of SERVS after the Exxon Valdez spill, the Council has been highly supportive of local fishers and mariners being trained annually with the best available technology to prepare for oil spills. Whittier mariners have the most intimate knowledge of, and connection to, the waters in and around Whittier. Their involvement would help protect the most sensitive areas, such as hatcheries and spawning streams, from spilled oil.
Whittier school student, Ana, 12, said about the event, “I think it’s good to protect our marine wildlife and [this event] creates awareness.”
The Council has held previous fishing vessel oil spill response training tours in Valdez, Seward, Cordova and Homer. The Council hopes that through such programs communities will understand the importance of oil spill prevention and having the most robust response strategies in place in the event of a spill.
”It’s especially important for local fishing vessels to participate in the system,” said Kathy Shea, one of several representatives from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s Spill Prevention and Response Division on board the tour. “They know the water, they’re out here fishing on a regular basis and they rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. They want to pass down a clean environment to their families in the future, so having them on our team is hugely advantageous for spill response.”
Additional photos are available for use on request by contacting Brooke Taylor at brooke.taylor@pwsrcac.org or 907-301-3784.
The Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, with offices in Anchorage and Valdez, is a federally mandated, independent nonprofit corporation whose mission is to promote the environmentally safe operation of the Valdez Marine Terminal and the oil tankers that use it. The council’s work is guided by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, and its contract with Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The council’s member organizations are communities in the region affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, as well as commercial fishing, aquaculture, Alaska Native, recreation, tourism and environmental groups.
