By ZACHARY VERFAILLIE
Council Intern
As an Emergency Management major at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, I was excited for the opportunity to work in Valdez as an intern with the council. The project I was given involved using the Fishing Vessel Availability reports from Alyeska’s Ship Escort/Response Vessel System, known as SERVS, to determine which vessels were available to respond in the unfortunate event of an oil spill in Prince William Sound.
A recent council study looked at issues associated with the remote control operations of Alyeska Pipeline Service Company’s Valdez Marine Terminal. Alyeska controls some operations for the terminal and pipeline from its Operational Control Center in Anchorage.
Although the immediate cause of the spill was a navigational error on the part of the tanker’s captain and crew, complacency among the oil industry, regulatory agencies, and the public was found to play a part in the disaster.
Few prevention measures were in place and cleanup resources were inadequate.
Since 1989, regulatory agencies, the industry and citizens have been working together to learn lessons on how we can prevent oil spills and be better prepared to clean up if another spill should occur.
Double hulls
All tankers transporting oil through Prince William Sound are now double-hulled. Double hulls, basically two steel skins separated by several feet of space, are an effective design feature which can reduce or eliminate spills that result from groundings or collisions.
By ROY ROBERTSON
Council Project Manager
Polar Tankers, Inc. conducted the annual Prince William Sound shipper’s drill for 2013 on October 7-9. Polar Tankers is the shipping company owned by ConocoPhillips.
This large drill involved more than 700 participants and included command posts in both Valdez and Anchorage as well as field activities in Prince William Sound.
The scenario had a Polar Tankers ship colliding with two barges being towed in tandem close to Montague Point on Montague Island in Prince William Sound.