|
New Alaska oil spill regs go into effect Challenges of conducting a marine emergency response offshore Alaska require special rules; response network monitors traffic Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Vessels operating in the seas offshore Alaska need to comply with new U.S. Coast Guard oil pollution regulations going into effect on Jan. 30, Ed Page, president of the Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network, told a meeting of the Alaska Regional Response Team, or ARRT, on Jan. 29. The ARRT coordinates federal oil spill response planning in Alaska.
Because of the impracticality and prohibitive cost of meeting all of the terms of the regulations in most areas around Alaska, the Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network has obtained Coast Guard approval of what are called Alternative Planning Criteria, or APC, a set of procedures that meet the objectives of oil spill prevention laws and the associated Coast Guard regulations. A vessel operator can comply with the law by registering with the Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network and following the procedures prescribed in the APC, Page said.
Non-tank vessels The new regulations and associated APC apply to non-tank vessels. A similar APC has been in operation for more than 20 years for barges carrying fuel oil around the Alaska coast, Page said. And an APC for oil tankers operating in Alaska waters went into effect in May 2012.
Although much attention has been paid to the potential for an oil spill associated with offshore oil drilling or from an accident involving an oil tanker, the U.S. Coast Guard and others, including Alaska coastal communities, are also concerned about the possibility of environmental damage resulting from a fuel oil leak from any wrecked ship. Vessel traffic in northern waters has been increasing in recent years, as the extent of summer Arctic sea ice has receded.
The new APC applies to a wide variety of vessels, including tugs, ferries, drill ships, bulk cargo vessels, fishing vessels and passenger vessels, according to the APC documentation.
Response requirements Coast Guard oil spill response regulations require the availability of staged inventories of spill response equipment, and the availability of vessels and crews to deploy and operate that equipment. Other than in the Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound regions, where there are stockpiles of spill response equipment in support of the oil industry, the huge distances, lack of support infrastructure and winter darkness around the Alaska coast make spill response contingency arrangements very challenging. The APC documentation says that, without the approved APC, full compliance with regulations in Alaska would be “largely ineffective” and could cost the shipping industry somewhere in excess of $100 million per year, a figure that translates to a cost of $100,000 per vessel.
This level of expense is impractical and, if imposed, would have the undesirable, unintended consequence of driving shipping to foreign ports — vessels operating out of foreign ports and transiting international shipping routes are not subject to U.S. oil spill prevention and response laws, Page said. For example, a ship that might otherwise depart from Seattle might instead depart from Prince Rupert in Canada, he said.
Managing risks The APC manages oil spill risk by setting rules for vessel routings that minimize accident risk. These rules ensure that safe distances are maintained from land and that transits through the Aleutian Islands use the larger, and hence safer, inter-island passages. A vessel tracking system monitors the movements of vessels registered with the APC, enabling an around-the-clock lookout for unusual vessel movements, with network staff notifying the vessel operator and the Coast Guard of any activity that suggests an elevated risk or that involves infraction of the APC rules. The Coast Guard is responsible for rule enforcement.
The vessel tracking system can also help locate any vessels that might be able to assist in the event of a marine emergency, the APC documentation says.
Alaska Chadux Corp., an oil spill response organization that supports the APC, is maintaining an inventory of spill response equipment that it and other organizations around western Alaska have staged and that could be deployed for a response. The Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network has also announced a strategic partnership with the Marine Spill Response Corp. for the cascading of out-of-state spill response resources into Alaska, should need arise. The Marine Spill Response Corp. is a major oil spill response organization, with stockpiles of spill response equipment staged at several locations in the Lower 48.
APC rules Under the terms of the APC, the master of any vessel registered with the APC must ensure the operation of the on-board equipment needed for the vessel tracking system and must notify the Coast Guard if the vessel encounters any hazardous condition, such as a deficiency in the vessel’s propulsion system, when operating within 200 miles of the Alaska coastline. The master must also notify in advance both the Coast Guard and the Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network if, for some reason, the vessel is unable to comply with the APC vessel routing rules.
There are also rules specific to vessel operations in sea-ice conditions.
Had the new APC been in operation in the past, major marine accidents such as the grounding of the Selendang Ayu could have been prevented, Page said. The Selendang Ayu, a bulk cargo ship, ran aground and broke up off Unalaska Island in the Aleutians in 2004, resulting in six deaths and a significant oil spill.
|
