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Department of Ecology News Release - March 23, 2009
09-070
OLYMPIA – In the 20 years since the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 10.8 million gallons of crude oil, Washington has made tremendous strides to prevent devastating spills to its state waters.
“Our number one priority is preventing spills from occurring in the first place because the economic and environmental consequences are greater than ever,” said Washington Department of Ecology Spills Program Manager Dale Jensen. “All spills matter, regardless of size, and the Washington Legislature acknowledged this by setting a ‘zero spills' goal for Washington. We take this mandate very seriously.”
According to Ecology records, approximately 15 billion gallons of oil is transferred over Washington waters every year by ship, fueling facility, tank truck and rail – more than 1.5 million gallons an hour.
Since the March 24, 1989, disaster, Washington's spill prevention, preparedness and response program has evolved into one of the most highly regarded systems in the nation, and the combined spill volume for Washington and Oregon is the lowest in the nation according to U.S. Coast Guard data.
Jensen said maritime shipping and oil-handling industries send their representatives from around the world to drill with Washington state to test their preparedness for a major spill.
However, the state hasn't always had such a strong program. In 1970s and 1980s, Washington had more than 20 large-volume oil spills in Puget Sound, along the Columbia River and outer coast. While Ecology responded to these spills, there was no cohesive state spill response program.
Washington's largest spill occurred on Jan. 1, 1972, when the U.S.S. General M.C. Meiggs, a 622-foot military troopship, grounded in an intertidal area north of Shi Shi Beach near Cape Flattery, spilling about 2.3 million gallons of heavy fuel oil.
The spill that helped define Washington's current spill prevention and response strategy occurred on December 23, 1988, when the fuel barge Nestucca spilled 231,000 gallons of heavy fuel near Grays Harbor. While the bulk of the oil washed ashore near Ocean Shores, the spill harmed wildlife and fouled beaches as far south as Oregon and north to Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
As a result, states on the west coast and British Columbia formed the Pacific States-British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force to determine how best to share spill response resources, build on lessons learned from spill incidents, identify risks, and prevent spills.
The Exxon Valdez spill occurred the day after the first Task Force meeting.
These spills spurred strong action by Washington lawmakers. In 1990, the first organized spill preparedness group was created within Ecology to help ensure refineries, pipelines and other land-based oil storage facilities could effectively respond if they spilled oil.
In 1991, the state Office of Marine Safety was established to focus on oil spill prevention from large commercial vessels including oil tankers and cargo ships. In 1997, the office merged into Ecology to form the agency's current spills program.
Ecology's authority was expanded to regulate vessel operations and establish spill prevention rules to address the risks that cargo and passenger vessels posed to state waters.
Since 1991, the state has pursued efforts to establish an emergency response tug at Neah Bay to keep disabled ships off the rocks and spilling oil in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the outer coast.
That effort culminated in the stationing of the first response tug at Neah Bay in 1999. For the first nine years, there was a state-funded tug at Neah Bay on a seasonable basis only. On July 1, 2008, the tug was stationed year-round for the first time.
This important spill prevention asset has been called into service 42 times. In nine incidents, the tug had to take a stricken vessel under tow to a safe port, effectively ensuring they did not ground and create an environmental disaster.
Oil from the Exxon Valdez fouled more than 1,100 miles of Alaska Shoreline. That is the equivalent of oiling the shoreline and impacting wildlife from Cape Flattery in Washington to San Diego in California.
On Tuesday, March 24 – 20 years to the day since the Exxon Valdez tragedy – Gov. Chris Gregoire will sign a bill shifting public funding for the tug to the maritime industry. This monumental achievement will mean permanent, year-round funding for the Neah Bay tug. The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Kevin Ranker and state Rep. Kevin Van De Wege with strong support from, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, Ecology, the Makah Nation, People for Puget Sound, Ocean Advocates, and numerous other stakeholders.
“We continue to push the envelope on prevention because we know preventing spills from happening is ultimately the most critical thing we can do to preserve the natural beauty of Washington state,” said Spills Prevention Manager Chip Boothe. “We will continue to do vessel and facility inspections, monitor high volume oil transfers, and test the maritime industry's ability to prevent, prepare for and respond to spills.”
In 2008, Ecology inspectors boarded more than 1,100 vessels and performed more than 2,500 vessel and facility inspections, including oil transfer inspections. In addition, they held more than 500 unannounced spill notification drills, testing the shipping industries' ability to make the proper calls to state and federal authorities – keeping environmental impacts to a minimum.
“We are better prepared than we have ever been,” said Spills Preparedness Manager Linda Pilkey-Jarvis. “We perform worst-case scenario drills with industry to evaluate their readiness for a spill, and we have identified and developed strategic, geographic-based plans for protecting our environmentally and culturally sensitive areas around the state.”
Pilkey-Jarvis said cross-state spill contingency planning policies have been crafted with Oregon and Idaho. Response capabilities, equipment verifications, training and deployment have been verified with industry to assure they are fully prepared to respond to a spill.
Trailers full of oil spill response equipment have been staged in 99 key locations around the state – including 60 locations in Puget Sound. Ecology helped train more than 1,000 local first responders to stop the source of the spill, contain it, and begin the cleanup.
“Our Ecology responders are available statewide and on call 24/7,” said Spills Response Manager David Byers. “From Bellingham to Vancouver and Bellevue to Spokane – if there's a major spill, we will aggressively respond and participate in the unified command until the cleanup is complete.”
Byers said Ecology receives nearly 4,000 spill reports and conducts about 1,000 field responses annually. Ecology tracks all oil and hazardous waste spills and identifies and focuses on the risks to the environment.
Jensen, overall manager for Ecology's spills prevention, preparedness and response operations, added: “We can only be successful if we remain vigilant and focused on preventing spills. If they do occur, we must be prepared to rapidly and aggressively respond. We continue to push for new regulations when needed, and actively enforce the ones we have in place. If industry can meet our expectations for spill prevention, preparedness, and response, they should do well anywhere in the world.”
“Washington has come a long way towards meeting our legislature's ‘zero spill' goal, but we still have work to do. We will continue to work with lawmakers, environmental groups, citizens and industry to find effective solutions at meeting this goal.”
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Media Contact:
Curt Hart, 360-407-6990; char461@ecy.wa.gov
Mary-Ellen Voss, 360-407-7211;
mevo461@ecy.wa.gov
Resources:
Washington Department of Ecology's Spills Program www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/spills/spills.html
Pacific States-British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force http://www.oilspilltaskforce.org/
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
