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June 2000

Vol. 5, No. 6 Week of June 28, 2000

Knowles signs oil spill prevention bill

Petroleum News Alaska Staff

Gov. Tony Knowles has signed spill prevention legislation that will extend portions of Alaska’s oil spill safety net to include railroad tank cars transporting oil and larger ferries, cruise ships, cargo ships, and fish processing vessels.

Sponsored by Sen. Drue Pierce, R-Anchorage, Senate Bill 273 requires operators of non-tanker vessels and railroad tank cars to have the financial ability to respond to oil spills from these operations by Sept. 1. The bill also establishes a task force within the Department of Environmental Conservation to study and propose legislation and regulations to implement oil discharge prevention and contingency plan requirements to meet the oil spill response planning standards.

“This is a good first step,” Knowles said in a June 7 statement, “in expanding our efforts to make Alaska’s waters the safest and most pristine possible. I look forward to the recommendations of the task force and further legislation to complete the job this bill begins.”

Pearce noted in her sponsor statement for SB273 that most recent spills have come from “carriers that are currently not required to prepare for spill response. Since 1995,” she said, “93 spills totaling 5,286 gallons of oil came from regulated vessels and facilities. During this same period, 945 spills totaling 258,000 gallons of oil came from non-regulated carriers.”

Knowles said in a transmittal letter for his own version of the legislation that: “Recent major oil spills on the Alaska Railroad and from a large fishing vessel in Dutch Harbor illustrate the need to mend Alaska’s oil spill prevention and response safety net. Alaska has arguably the world’s best spill prevention and response program, but only for vessels that carry oil as cargo, and for land-

based oil facilities such as oil wells, pipelines, and refineries. That safety net does not exist for any other oil carrier, or the Alaska Railroad, regardless of the volumes they may carry and the fact they travel in some of the most pristine and resource-rich areas of the state.”

The governor’s office said that Alaska is the only state on the West Coast that has not extended its contingency plan and financial responsibility laws to include non-tanker vessels.






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