Eyak plans Cordova spill response facility

The Native Village of Eyak has applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a new facility at Shepard Point in Cordova for the support of oil spill response activities. According to information provided with the permit application the facility’s dock will be able to accommodate oil spill response and other vessels with deeper drafts than any existing facilities in the area. The facility will provide an equipment and material staging area contiguous with the dock.

The facility would improve existing oil spill response capabilities at Cordova which has an airport with the longest runway in the Prince William Sound region but lacks a deepwater port, the application says. The new facility, connected to the airport by road, would be capable of providing access to deep-draft oil spill response vessels in any tide — current spill response plans envisage Cordova airport receiving 20 percent of out-of-region equipment mobilized for a response in the region, but with that equipment having to be delivered to the response site using fishing vessels, the application says.

The application says a consent decree associated with the civil settlement for the Exxon Valdez oil spill had included an agreement and some funding for the facility, but the facility has not yet been constructed.

Building the facility would involve the construction of a 600-foot-long deepwater port at Shepard Point and a 4.5-mile road connecting Shepard Point to the Cordova road system, the application says. The dock would be of traditional design, supported on pilings and connected to land by a trestle. No dredging would be required to achieve the necessary water depth.

—Alan Bailey