Major oil spill exercise held at Valdez

Government and industry partners recently conducted a major oil spill response exercise at Valdez, where tankers load Alaska North Slope crude.

The June 12-13 exercise involved the U.S. Coast Guard, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the city of Valdez and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

“Following the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the federal government developed a National Preparedness for Response Exercise Program (PREP) to provide a mechanism for compliance with oil spill response exercise requirements,” the Coast Guard said in a June 10 press release. “During area exercises, the entire response community within a geographical area combines into one integrated response team to practice both coordinated response activities and agency jurisdictional responsibilities following a large-scale incident.”

This year’s PREP exercise was “based around a simulated worse-case oil discharge at the Valdez Marine Terminal,” the Coast Guard said.

The first day focused on response operations within an incident command post. The second day focused on actual field deployment of response resources and simulated protection of sensitive marine areas such as the Valdez Duck Flats and the Solomon Gulch salmon hatchery.

Alyeska operates the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline and the tanker terminal.

“Alyeska makes a significant investment in emergency preparedness and our employees train year-round to respond,” said Scott Hicks, Valdez Marine Terminal director and Alyeska’s representative on the Unified Command. “Large-scale exercises ... require months to plan and close collaboration with the Coast Guard, Alaska Department of Environment Conservation and the City of Valdez.”

—Wesley Loy