A look at the longer term for PWS response

Reflecting on experience with recent oil spill response drills held in Valdez, as part of spill response contingency planning for the Prince William Sound region, U.S. Coast Guard officers told an Alaska Regional Response Team meeting on Jan.29 that there may be benefit having future drills focus on longer term spill response planning. Traditionally the drills have simulated the initial stages of a response, and the activation of resources immediately after a spill occurs.

The Valdez drills simulate accidents involving tankers carrying oil out of the Valdez Marine Terminal.

Oil spill contingency planning needs to consider worst case oil spill situations, ensuring the availability of resources to deal with such a disaster, regardless of the likelihood of a spill on this scale actually happening. But, although recent spill drills have been very successful in simulating the ramp up of a response immediately after a spill has occurred, a major spill would entail a logistical and cleanup effort over an extended period of time, the officers said.

People need to consider drill scenarios perhaps 10 days into an incident, reviewing how the response organization is handling the logistical and other challenges of a major incident, Capt. Paul Mehler from the Coast Guard told the committee.

Mehler also commented that there is now recognition that, for a major spill, the on-scene federal command within the unified command for the response would transfer from the officer responsible for the Prince William Sound region to the officer responsible for the broader area of western Alaska. The assumption is that, for a large Prince William Sound response, Anchorage rather than Valdez would become the center of the massive planning and logistical operation supporting the response, Mehler said.

—Alan Bailey