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September 2011 Observer Newsletter

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September 2011 Observer Newsletter Two new ExxonMobil tankers expected Council book about to begin service in the Sound in 2014 Exxon Valdez spill used SeaRiver Maritime, the marine shipping arm to withstand operations in the North Pacific for in Wisconsin college of ExxonMobil, announced in late July plans for a minimum of twenty-five years without suf- classroom construction of two new crude oil tankers. Con- fering hull metal fatigue. Previous standards By MARIANNE UNGER struction is to begin in 2012 and the new vessels used by the company were based on a twenty Adjunct Professor of Sociology are expected to begin service in Prince William year design life. The new tankers are designed Carthage College Sound during 2014. to carry 730,000 barrels of oil, which is about 12 At Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, “All cargo and fuel compartments will be percent less than the vessels they will be replac- students in my Adult Education class “Alaskan equipped with double hull protection. Both ing, the Kodiak and Sierra, which were built in Settlers” find themselves especially fortunate to vessels will feature the latest in navigation and the late 1970’s. have access to “THE communications equipment. Main engine and The new ships will be driven by a single SPILL: Personal Sto- auxiliary systems will be energy efficient and gen- slow-speed diesel engine and will have an oil ries from the Exxon erate lower air emissions than what is required mist and gas detection system for the space Valdez Disaster,” by current regulatory standards,” according to between the double hulls. This system will detect which was produced a July 25 press release from the company. the presence of these flammable materials and by the Prince Wil- These ships will be among the first U.S. help prevent fires from occurring aboard the liam Sound Regional oil tankers built to meet specifications in the vessels. While the ships will not be constructed Citizens’ Advisory Common Structural Rules for Oil Tankers. These with double propellers, engines, or rudders, a Council. rules were developed in 2006 by the three biggest SeaRiver representative indicated the design This book opens ship classification societies, the American Bureau does include other navigational and propulsion the doorway to under- of Shipping, Norway’s Det Norske Veritas, and redundancies. Specifically, SeaRiver has tried standing the impact the U.K.’s Lloyd’s Register. Ship classification to eliminate the possibility of single points of of the Exxon Valdez Marianne Unger societies are non-governmental organizations failure leading to loss of power or navigational See page 7, THE SPILL that establish and maintain technical standards failure. This will include items like the inclusion for the construction and operation of ships and of redundant engine cooling water, installation offshore structures. The 2006 rules combined of additional low fuel level alarms and increas- Alaskan students best practices of these three societies into one ing the reliability of things like fuel flow meters. learn protection and commonly accepted set of rules. The new ExxonMobil ships will be designed See page 7, NEW TANKERS stewardship of Sound Two 2011 summer programs emphasized Cordova group petitions to support citizen stewardship and protection of the unique ecol- ogy present in Alaskan waters. oversight council for trans-Alaska pipeline Read more about the lessons teens from the Cordova’s Copper River Watershed Project years has been to promote the idea of a citizen Copper River basin learned during their trip is circulating a petition advocating for an inde- oversight council for the pipeline, similar to to Wrangell pendent citizen oversight council for the trans- the councils for crude oil operations in Prince St Elias and Alaska pipeline. William Sound and Cook Inlet. In 2009, after Prince Wil- The organization’s overall mission is to several pipeline explosions in the Lower 48, the liam Sound provide residents with a forum to consider and organization received a $48,000 grant from the on page 2, and implement innovative approaches for achieving Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Admin- high school balance between a diverse economy and healthy istration to study the feasibility of a council for students from ecosystems while maintaining quality of life and the Alaska pipeline. Valdez visit cultural heritage. Kachemak Bay One of the group’s projects over the last few See page 7, TRANS-ALASKA PIPELINE on page 5. AK Chamber of Commerce - AK Wilderness Recreation & Tourism Assoc. - Chenega Bay - Chugach Alaska Corp. - Cordova - CDFU - Homer - Kenai Peninsula Borough Kodiak - Kodiak Island Borough - Kodiak Village Mayors - OSREC - Port Graham Corp. - PWS Aquaculture Corp. - Seldovia - Seward - Tatitlek - Valdez - Whittier INSIDE THE OBSERVER Committee volunteer’s Council staffer appointed to state childhood experience with boating safety council, p. 4 Lake Erie pollution inspires career, p. 2 Swanson appointed to Valdez Ports and Harbor Commission, p. 4 Educating Alaska’s youth is key to future of Sound, p. 2 Committee support in Valdez office changes hands, p. 4 Mark Swanson: The merits PERMIT NO. 836 NO. PERMIT of increased transparency Students study Alaska’s coastal in spill response p. 3 ecology and environment ANCHORAGE, AK ANCHORAGE, monitoring, p. 5 U.S. POSTAGE PAID POSTAGE U.S. Alyeska: Stewardship of PROFIT ORG. PROFIT NON Sound important to new Community Corner: Out and about SERVS director, p. 3 in the communities, p. 8 Volume 21, No. 4 September 2011 September 2011 Volume 21, No. 4 From the Executive Director Science committee volunteer’s childhood The merits of increased transparency in spill response experience with Lake Erie pollution inspires career As seen in the BP Deepwater Horizon establishes a nationwide framework for dealing their response Paula Martin, newest member of the coun- mental science programs at universities in a great deal of infor- incident in the Gulf of Mexico last year, Exxon- with oil spills.) efforts. cil’s Scientific Advisory Committee, clearly Pennsylvania and Georgia, before moving to mation about disper- Mobil’s pipeline spill in Montana this summer, The public isn’t keen to see the government In an era of recalls the fish kills, the raw sewage and the Alaska in 2007. She is now the Assistant Direc- sants, but it is also and again with Shell’s recent spill in the North eagerly “partnering” with an oil industry entity limited public pollution that in the 1960’s infamously fouled tor for Academic Affairs at the Kenai Peninsula looking to have that Sea, the public expects reasonable transparency that doesn’t appear particularly trustworthy or funding and the waters of Lake Erie near her childhood home College in Soldotna. information brought when disclosing the magnitude of oil spills and competent at the moment of an ongoing oil spill. an increasingly in Buffalo, New York, spawning headlines such Martin said she loves living in Alaska, which up to date. The com- the scope and progress of spill response efforts. But that’s exactly what the National Response complex oil as “The lake is dead!” she describes as, “absolutely the most amazing mittee also wants to In each case, the amount of oil spilled was Plan calls for. industry with “It was totally disgusting,” Martin said. “It place to live when you are interested in the expand the studies calculated by the party responsible for the spill It is only right that the party responsible for offshore and smelled and there were dead fish piled up to my environment, because the environment here is to understand more and the industry and government response the spill should mount and fund an appropri- underground waist along the shores. still pretty intact compared to the Lower 48.” about the effect of effort was sized to reflect these estimates. Each ately robust clean up. But it is not acceptable operations, it “The Buffalo incident was very much a for- “I really enjoy my work with the council dispersants on ecosys- time, the responsible party initially dramatically that industry should visibly lead the response, is difficult for mative experience for me in terms of my interest because a big part of the mission is to try to tems, particularly cold underestimated the spill size and the potential appear to be unchallenged when informing, governments in water quality.” protect that environment.” water ecosystems.” Paula Martin environmental impacts. or potentially misinforming, regulators and and regula- This event early in her life inspired her to “One of the things I like about the council’s Martin said. Nobody likes bad news, but industry’s trivi- the public on how serious a spill is, and then tors to have head to Berkley, California for college. It was approach is it gets the voice of the local commu- Another area of interest for Martin is the alizing and significantly underestimating the restrict public access to reports of damage and the expertise to one of the few schools in the country that had nity directly connected to the decision makers,” science committee’s work on aquatic nuisance magnitude and consequences of a problem it spill response information. independently Mark Swanson a program in aquatic entomology, where she Martin said, “so the citizens of Prince William species. These non-native species can travel from has caused doesn’t engender public confidence. Firing back at a skeptical media and public verify industry could study the use of insects as indicators of Sound have a voice in what happens in their port to port in the ballast water that ships take Estimating spill volumes can be extremely chal- with statistics like miles of boom and the num- estimates of spill severity and impact and to water quality. area. They may not have control over it at all on to help balance when they have no cargo, and lenging, but, when public access to informa- bers of boats and people deployed comes across direct appropriate spill response efforts with After completing graduate work at the times, but at least the council provides them a by attaching themselves to the outside hulls of tion and local as a smoke screen and doesn’t really answer transparency.
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