Monday, March 30, 2009

Draw Down the Drift River Storage Tanks!

March 29, 2009


In the wake of the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, apparently we have learned NOTHING.


Chevron has left 6 million gallons of oil in harms way, atop our Cook Inlet fisheries. Yet Chevron, the Coast Guard, EPA, ADEC all agree on one thing: we do not have the capacity to clean up 6 million gallons of oil in Cook Inlet.


It’s true. The barge capacity to lighter spilled oil in Cook Inlet is only half the volume in the tanks - 3 million gallons. So what’s the response plan? The Coast Guard said on Friday “we’re working on it.” Seriously.


They have no actionable plan to response to a worst case spill.


Instead, they have a crop duster and several thousand gallons of dispersants to push the oil out of sight/out of mind. And the primary focus from the USCG and Chevron now? Get the facility back into production.


Don't stop the flow of oil.


Risks to fisheries are secondary to profits in Cook Inlet.


And don't forget - Chevron dumps BILLIONS (yes, BILLIONS) of gallons of toxic waste into Cook Inlet fisheries each year under a Clean Water Act loophole.


Write to the Captain of the Port - Mark Hamilton - mark.h.hamilton@uscg.mil - and ask him to:


1) draw down the oil in the tanks at the Drift River Terminal until the volcano subsides and


2) position spill response equipment so we’re ready in case things turn south.


Thank you -


Bob Shavelson
Cook Inletkeeper


image - View up the Drift Canyon and the central ice gorge carved by floodwaters.

Picture Date: March 26, 2009 17:30:20 AKDT
Image Creator: McGimsey, Game;

Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Wait till the Volcano dies down"?? Hmm that might take a few million years.

Is there any real threat to the tanks or is this just some Wacky enviro crazy making up a threats in their minds.

Total Bull Shit.- Unless you believe that oil is evil

These Wacko's are just looking for any reason to cry.

I agree - you cannot trust big oil. Big Oil only cares about profit. Big oil could give a fck about Alaska.

But that does not mean that there is a real risk. If so we should shut the whole Chevron storage tanks down permanently because the Volcano could blow anytime for the next million years.

Advice to Wacko Enviros - Don't blow your credibility. Alaskans do not trust the oil companies, but wild claims like this tarnish your cred.

Jaime from Wasilla said...

The city of Wasilla dumps just as much raw sewage into Cook inlet each year because they don't have water treatment plant. Ah, the legacy of Palin....

Anonymous said...

Jaime- Didn't Wasilla ever fix the problems that led to the giant sewer bubbles or smelly ice fog?
What's the situation with the sewage system?

Mark Wilke said...

Anonymous you ask if there is any real threat....Volcanos like Redoubt can unleash eruptions on a scale so large that they are difficult to understand. Check out the descriptions of the Mt.Katmai eruption that you can find on Google opr the AVO web site. That eruption created a single Lahar that was = to the entire flow of the Mississippi river for a year. Ash from Mt. Katmai fell in Montana. Never underestimate the raw power of this restless. earth.