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Citizens’ council for pipeline advocated
A Cordova-based nonprofit organization is pushing a petition calling for “citizen oversight” of the trans-Alaska pipeline system.
“Enough is enough,” the Copper River Watershed Project says on its website, citing a January oil spill at Pump Station 1 and other spills in North Slope oil fields.
The organization is advocating creation of a citizens’ council for TAPS, similar to the council already in place to oversee terminal and tanker operations at the end of the 800-mile pipeline in Valdez.
The worry is that the pipeline crosses several tributaries of the Copper River, and an oil spill could quickly reach and contaminate the river famed for its wild salmon, the Watershed Project says.
Letter to Congress Petitioners can sign onto a letter to Congress available on the change.org website. The site indicated 227 signatures had been collected as of Aug. 10.
The letter says in part: “Today the pipeline is 34 years old and already 4 years past what oil companies estimated was its useful life. Due to corrosion, lax regulation, natural disasters, vandalism, and human error the pipeline poses a constant threat to the Copper River watershed.”
The Copper River Watershed Project was incorporated in late 1997. Its founding director is Riki Ott, a marine biologist and author known for her activism following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the Anchorage-based energy company consortium that runs the pipeline, says it has people and equipment ready to respond should a spill occur at a river or stream crossing.
—Wesley Loy
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