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RCAC seeks shipping safety improvements Valdez-based citizens’ council brings weather buoy, ice radar concerns to D.C., highlights drive for new Gulf of Mexico council Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
The Prince William Sound Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council is raising concerns about weather buoys important for shipping safety.
The council also is looking to upgrade equipment used to monitor drifting icebergs that can damage oil tankers.
And the Valdez-based organization says it’s being held up as a model for a possible citizens’ council for the Gulf of Mexico.
The Prince William Sound RCAC detailed all these items in the July issue of its newsletter, The Observer.
Buoy breakdowns The RCAC is a congressionally mandated nonprofit formed after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to monitor the Valdez oil terminal and associated tanker traffic. Its members include local governments plus commercial fishing, environmental, Native, and recreation and tourism groups.
RCAC board and staff members traveled to Washington, D.C., in May to talk over council concerns with the Alaska congressional delegation and officials with the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and others, the newsletter said.
The concerns were raised in the context of “the new era of federal budget austerity.”
One worrisome issue is deferred maintenance on several weather monitoring buoys in Prince William Sound, the newsletter said.
“Prince William Sound and surrounding coastal waters are known for unique and powerful, localized wind events called ‘barrier jets’ and ‘williwaws,’” the newsletter said. “These wind events are strong enough to flip smaller boats and to damage or potentially push larger ones, including tankers, onto shore, rocks and reefs. Weather just outside of Prince William Sound can be quite severe causing sea states that can cause harm to tankers and other vessels entering or leaving the Sound.”
The primary concern is service disruptions for lack of ships and personnel to repair the weather buoys, the newsletter said.
“Recent examples include a buoy adrift in the middle of the Sound that took six months to replace, and a buoy at Hinchinbrook Entrance which has been operating sporadically since late August of 2012,” the council said.
Following the council’s Washington trip, a NOAA official “reached out to the council” about the weather buoy concerns, the newsletter said.
Ice radar upgrade In 2002, the council worked with the Coast Guard, tanker operators and Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline, to install an ice radar system on Reef Island in Prince William Sound.
The radar helps monitor ice calving off Columbia Glacier. The ice sometimes drifts into the tanker lanes, and was a contributing factor in the Exxon Valdez disaster.
The Coast Guard owns and operates the Reef Island radar, but the council owns a processor that uses raw radar data to display an ice picture in the ship escort duty office.
The council wants to upgrade the processor to newer technology.
After the council group’s Washington trip, the Coast Guard “approved a request for proposals drafted by the council for purchase and installation of an upgrade,” the newsletter said.
New Gulf council? The RCAC noted that organizers from five Gulf of Mexico states met May 30 in New Orleans to talk about formation of a citizens’ advisory council modeled after the Valdez organization.
The impetus for the Gulf council was the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in 2010.
The new council would commission research and provide advice to government and industry, said a May 31 press release from the Gulf group. It would have an annual budget of at least $5 million drawn from the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. The chief source of revenue for the fund is an 8 cent per barrel excise tax on oil.
The Valdez council’s budget is roughly comparable, but comes directly from the oil industry under a contract with Alyeska.
The national commission on the Deepwater Horizon disaster endorsed the idea of a Gulf citizens’ council. Thus far, however, Congress hasn’t acted to mandate a Gulf council.
BP, Shell and other oil companies and trade associations were invited, but declined to attend the New Orleans organizational meeting, organizers said.
Rick Steiner, a former University of Alaska professor and oil industry critic, took part in what he called the historic New Orleans meeting.
“It’s a real shame the oil industry did not participate,” he said. “Citizens here deserve greater empowerment, and a legitimate voice in the safe management of the Gulf oil industry.”
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