Questions raised over VMT spill plan

Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council, Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., the City of Valdez and Valdez Fisheries Development Association have challenged the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation’s approval of the most recent version of the oil discharge prevention and contingency plan for the Valdez Marine Terminal. The organizations say that the latest version of the plan unacceptably lowers the level of protection for the Valdez Duck Flats and the Solomon Gulch Hatchery in Port Valdez near the marine terminal. The organizations have requested an adjudicatory hearing, with an alternative dispute resolution procedure being an option for resolving the issues raised.

The Valdez Marine Terminal, operated by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., loads oil delivered from the trans-Alaska pipeline into tankers for export from Alaska; PWSRCAC is a citizen’s group that promotes environmentally safe operations at the terminal; PWSAC operates salmon hatcheries around Prince William Sound; and VFDA operates Solomon Gulch Hatchery.

In a Nov. 21 filing with DEC, PWSRCAC and PWSAC said that, despite a long-standing precedent of assuring high levels of protection to the duck flats and salmon hatchery, Alyeska’s newly approved contingency plan has “dramatically weakened” those protections by extending the time within which protections must be put in place following an oil spill, and by weakening the criteria for determining situations in which protections must be implemented. The organizations are contesting whether the new contingency plan meets statutory requirements for environmental protection, and whether the plan approval complied with the Alaska Administrative Procedure Act.

In a Nov. 21 letter to ADEC, Bruce Weyhrauch, attorney for Valdez Fisheries, said that, without any factual or policy support, the approved contingency plan no longer requires the immediate and rapid deployment of boom for the Solomon Gulch Hatchery, when there is an oil spill response.

- ALAN BAILEY