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Council cites flaws in oil spill plans North Slope crude shippers propose ‘retreat’ from some existing prevention and cleanup standards, Valdez oversight group says Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
An advisory council is raising concerns about proposed oil spill cleanup plans North Slope crude shippers have submitted to state regulators.
Problems include a decrease in contract manpower, and a lack of commercial fishing vessels available to help with cleanup, the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council says.
The Valdez-based council is a congressionally mandated nonprofit organization formed after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. It represents seafood, environmental, Native and recreational interests.
Under state law, oil shippers must have oil discharge prevention and contingency plans, commonly known as C-plans, laying out how they would deploy people and equipment to deal with a major spill.
Shipping companies for North Slope oil producers including ConocoPhillips, BP, ExxonMobil and Chevron, as well as refiner Tesoro, have put in C-plan renewal applications with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
The current C-plans, approved in 2007, are due to expire in November.
The DEC on Feb. 23 posted a public notice inviting comments on the C-plan applications. The citizens’ council was among those submitting such comments.
The council acknowledged the industry has built “one of the most robust oil spill prevention and response systems in the world” in Prince William Sound. The industry has a unit called SERVS, the Ship Escort/Response Vessel System, to escort oil-laden tankers with powerful tugs and to respond to spills.
But the council says it found numerous shortcomings in the new C-plans.
The plans “in several respects appear to represent a retreat from existing prevention and cleanup standards established in 2007,” the council said in a March 30 press release.
The council submitted a highly detailed, 50-page analysis to the DEC detailing concerns in 10 different areas.
Worker, fishing vessel concerns “One example of an evident cutback is that the new plans appear to show a reduction in the number of contracted oil-spill cleanup workers,” the council said. “The 2007 plan shows 180 such workers, while the proposed 2012 plan shows only about 133 workers, a cut of more than 25 percent. The council is concerned this would degrade cleanup capabilities as trained workers are necessary to make sure cleanup efforts continue around the clock, seven days a week.”
The council also noted concerns with the commercial fishing boat program. The oil industry contracts with fishing vessel crews to train on spill response, and to respond in the event of an incident.
The proposed C-plans don’t account for a sufficient number of fishing vessels, committing to having only 275 vessels available when ideally about 370 vessels are needed.
The council’s analysis added: “During recent drills and exercises, there were documented shortfalls in trained crewmembers available to crew all the fishing vessels. This affected the available fishing vessels and their ability to respond.”
The council also questioned the industry’s ability to adequately contain, control and recover the required minimum of 300,000 barrels of oil within 72 hours after an incident. The council analysis said the rapid spread of oil on water wasn’t properly accounted for.
The council also criticized the proposed C-plans for not assigning enough equipment to protect fish hatcheries or other sensitive areas in the event of a spill.
“The overall timing of hatchery protection and sensitive area protection also seems to have slowed down when compared to the 2007 plan,” the council said.
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