Tag: Alaska

The Coast Guard, a co-chair of the Alaska Regional Response Team (ARRT), in coordination with four other signatory agencies announced the new policy for the Dispersant Use Plan For Alaska, in Anchorage.

NOAA archaeologists have discovered the battered hulls of two 1800s whaling ships nearly 144 years after they and 31 others sank off the Arctic coast of Alaska in one of the planet's most unexplored ocean regions.

Statoil has officially announced that it has decided to exit Alaska following recent exploration results in neighbouring leases

USCG released a statement to remove confusion and correct misinformation concerning new regulations on the ROUPV credential

 U.S. and Alaska state officials have officially announced they will no longer seek an additional $92 million from Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay for environmental cleanup and restoration stemming from the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill nearly three decades ago.The Department of Justice and the Alaska Department of Law announced that they are bringing to a close the federal and state judicial actions against ExxonMobil Corporation and its corporate predecessors regarding the 1989Exxon Valdez oil spill.  The Prince William Sound, Alaska, harlequin ducks and sea otters thought in 2006 to have been impacted by lingering subsurface oil have recovered to pre-spill population levels.  Scientists have concluded that exposure to the subsurface oil is no longer biologically significant to these species.  Accordingly, the governments have decided to withdraw their 2006 request to Exxon to fund bio-restoration of subsurface lingering oil patches. The March 1989 grounding of the tanker vessel Exxon Valdez on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound spilled nearly 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil that ultimately contaminated some 1,500 miles of Alaska’s coastline.  It affected three national parks, four national wildlife refuges, a national forest, five state parks, four state critical habitat areas, a state game sanctuary and ...

 Two members ​of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement's (BSEE) Oil Spill Preparedness Division ​recently ​traveled to communities along the Arctic to verify and inspect oil spill response equipment staged to support ongoing oil exploration in the Chukchi Sea.Along with several members ​of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the team traveled to Wainwright and Prudhoe Bay, to verify equipment preparedness and inspect required items in Shell’s approved Chukchi and Beaufort Sea Regional Exploration Program Oil Spill Response Plans.The equipment is owned and/or operated by Alaska Clean Seas, and Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation Arctic Response Services, two of Shell’s oil spill removal organizations listed in the company’s plans. The joint inspection team verified that the equipment was available and maintained as detailed in the plans, following inspections of specified equipment, maintenance records, and equipment operability.The inspections are a continuation of BSEE’s commitment and comprehensive effort to ensure safe and environmentally responsible offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic. As federal regulators, BSEE enforces operator compliance with regulations regarding oil spill response equipment preparedness and conducts inspections and exercises, to validate the tactics, logistics, resource availability, and personnel proficiency identified and relied upon in the approved oil spill response plan ...

Non-tank vessels in transit through Western Alaska waters en-route to or from a US port are required to follow Alternative Planning Criteria (APC) in order to fulfil federal requirements. The International P&I Club informs that in order to meet these APC requirements operators have, to date, been required to enrol with the sole provider of such services in Western Alaska, namely the Alaska Maritime Prevention and Response Network (AK-AMPRN).  Operators are informed that National Response Corporation (NRC) and Resolve Marine Group have now received final approval from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) for their Western Alaska APC, which focuses on the northern Pacific Great Circle route for non-tank Vessels transiting through the Aleutian Islands in Western Alaska. With this final approval from the USCG, NRC/Resolve is now providing non-tank vessel operators with their “1-Call Alaska” coverage for vessels transiting the Aleutian Islands Subarea of Western Alaska in compliance with OPA 90 regulations. Therefore, non-tank vessel operators now have a choice of APCs to follow for their non-tank vessels transiting Western Alaska. Availability of the 1-Call Alaska coverage Operators are informed that, at present, the 1-Call Alaska cover only applies to non-tank vessels, although NRC/Resolve expects to receive final USCG approval to expand their ...

USCG responded to a barge grounded on the Kongiganak River near Bethel

New alternative planning criteria for US Vessel Response Plans in Western Alaska