Second Drift River tank to come online
The operator of the Drift River terminal on the west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet is planning to bring another of the facility’s huge crude oil storage tanks back into service.
At present, only one of the terminal’s 270,000-barrel tanks, tank 3, is in use, state officials said.
The operator, Cook Inlet Pipe Line Co., wants to reactivate tank 4.
To allow this, CIPL has applied to amend its oil spill prevention and response plan. The agency considering the application is the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
DEC is taking public comments on the application until Oct. 4.
“The department will hold a public hearing on the plan application if it determines that good cause exists,” DEC said.
CIPL is a subsidiary of Hilcorp, a major oil and gas operator in Cook Inlet.
The Drift River terminal consists of a tank farm and a dock for loading oil tankers.
It closed in 2009 following a series of volcanic eruptions of nearby Mount Redoubt. Since then, Hilcorp has worked to better fortify the terminal against volcano-related flooding and to resume limited use of the tank farm.
Built in the 1960s, the terminal is located about 12 miles southeast of the base of Mount Redoubt.
—Wesley Loy
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