Last winter, when the Seabulk Pride broke loose from its moorings and grounded near Nikiski, it was the latest of damaged vessels moved to the relative safety of Kachemak Bay so temporary repairs could be made. As part of a process to develop a list of potential places of refuge in Cook Inlet, representatives from an alphabet soup of agencies met to blue-pencil draft plans at a workshop held last Wednesday at Homer City Hall.
U.S. Coast Guard Captain Mark DeVries emphasized that the meeting wasn’t a public comment period on a places of refuge plan. The public has an opportunity to comment when that information is used to make changes to the Cook Inlet Subarea Contingency Plan for Oil and Hazardous Substances Spills and Releases. A plan will eventually be developed similar to one for Prince William Sound.
The working group also wasn’t developing a plan to designate areas as sacrificial bays — a place where a leaking ship could anchor to minimize impacts to a larger area at the expense of a smaller bay.
“That’s not the intent,” said Dale Gardner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. “These are sites that can be used to take a stricken vessel.”
John Bauer of DEC outlined the process in responding to a vessel in distress. When a vessel’s master requests a place of refuge from the Captain of the Port — the Coast Guard officer so designated — the Captain of the Port considers options such as continuing the vessel’s voyage, taking the vessel farther out to sea, scuttling it or directing it to a place of refuge. A 10-step process is used to determine what to do with a stricken vessel and where to send it. Audience members asked about criteria used in the process, such as a vessel’s insurance or if it had been vetted for Homeland Security risk.
The safety of the vessel and crew is balanced with health, safety and environmental impacts to local communities. That decision leads to a problem, Bauer noted: Sometimes the best place to send a vessel in terms of operation is the worst place to send it in terms of environmental impacts.
Organized by the Cook Inlet Regional Citizens Advisory Council, last week’s meeting invited stakeholders to share local knowledge of places of refuge. Most of the workshop time was spent going through maps and charts and analyzing areas in terms of characteristics like shipping lines, location of bulk fuel storage, spill response equipment and large-vessel traffic.
For example, when Tim Robertson of Nuka Research — the Seldovia company helping to develop the plan — projected a map showing commercial shipping routes, people pointed out a line showing ferry and cruise ship traffic to Anchorage wasn’t correct: The Alaska Marine Highway System doesn’t go to Anchorage, and not that many cruise ships call there. Others pointed out that traffic routes should be shown to the Williamsport area for possible Pebble mine ore carriers if that project is developed.
Similar criticisms were made of maps showing location of nearshore fishing grounds. Shouldn’t the maps also show subsistence or personal use fishing areas? What about hatchery fish release areas in Halibut Cove or the Homer Spit?
Robertson agreed that information needed to be added.
“We’re striving to make these as accurate as possible,” he said of the risk analysis maps.
A risk analysis map puts different kinds of information on a map layer. That information is then used as part of a site-selection matrix to determine potential places of refuge — the best site for a vessel 450 feet or longer with a 30-to-65-foot draft near a bulk fuel storage area.
After Nuka Research collates last week’s comments, another draft will go back to the workgroup for future meetings. Meetings are planned in other Cook Inlet communities, with the final product a draft plan ready for public comment. Even though the final product is months away, the knowledge gained last week is still useful, Gardner said.
“If something happens two months from now, the information we put together can certainly be put to use,” he said.
For further information on the Cook Inlet Places of Refuge, visit its Web site at www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/perp/ cookinletpor/
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.
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