Newsroom

New guidelines for using dispersants proposed

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By STEVE ROTHCHILD
Council Administrative Deputy Director

The Alaska Regional Response Team has proposed new guidelines for how chemical dispersants are approved for use in Alaska’s waters.

This team is an advisory board of resource trustee agencies that provides federal, state, and local governmental agencies with the means to participate in pollution incident response.

The announcement of these new proposed guidelines came in October, and the team held a series of public meetings to discuss the new approval procedures in November in five Southcentral Alaska communities. Council representatives attended three of the five meetings in Kodiak, Anchorage and Valdez. The other two meetings were held out of the council’s geographic area.

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Sound loses tireless environmental defender

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Stan Stephens
From Stan Stephens’ journal on April 18, 1989:
“Today is absolute confusion. They found a lot of oil north of Perry Island in Wells Passage. Equipment is starting to break down. So there are less and less skimmers working. The oil is getting so spread out they cannot handle it. Here is a whole month gone by without a real understanding of those in charge how big Prince William Sound really is. I’m dedicating the rest of my life and spare time to the protection of the environment.”

Prince William Sound lost a passionate and dedicated defender on September 21, when Stan Stephens, Valdez resident and council board member since the organization started up in 1990, passed away. Stephens was 78.

Born and raised in Minnesota, Stephens was an Alaska resident since 1961. Arriving in April of that year, he first camped on vacant property, later purchasing the land and building his home in the North Pole area. Married in 1964 to Mary Helen, they raised their family of three daughters in North Pole.

Stephens was the owner and operator of Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife Cruises based in Valdez. The company, originally named North Star Marine Charters, began sport fishing charters in 1971 and over the years evolved into the sightseeing company it is today.

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Council study reviews escort tug technology

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By ALAN SORUM
Council Project Manager

This vessel, the Tan'erliq, is an "enhanced tractor tug," or ETT.
This vessel, the Tan’erliq, is an “enhanced tractor tug,” or ETT.

A recent council study found that the escort tugs being used in Prince William Sound, though exceedingly capable, no longer represent the best technology being used for these types of applications and services worldwide.

Loaded oil tankers transiting the waters of Prince William Sound are required by federal law and their oil spill contingency plans to be accompanied by two escort tugboats. Currently, escort tugs can serve in a primary or secondary role, depending on performance requirements established in the tanker contingency plans. The goal of the escort tug system is to prevent an oil tanker that suffers a mechanical or propulsion issue from running aground.

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Workshop helps citizens understand incident command system

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Tim Robertson, council contractor, leads a discussion during the Seward workshop on how contingency plans relate to the Incident Command System. Photo by Amanda Johnson.
Tim Robertson, council contractor, leads a discussion during the Seward workshop on how contingency plans relate to the Incident Command System.

This fall, the council sponsored a series of community workshops to teach citizens how an oil spill response is organized and managed.

The workshops in Homer, Whittier and Seward examined the power and decision making structure used during an emergency, and the role of federal, state, and local responders, and the role of the communities in the system. The goal was to help communities understand how to be more effective in representing themselves during an incident and understand more about how a spill would be handled.

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