Agencies seek dispersant avoidance guidance

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are seeking public input to identify coastal areas around the Alaska Peninsula and southern Alaska where the use of chemical dispersants in response to oil spills should be avoided. Dispersants that break an oil slick into tiny droplets for distribution through the water column and for rapid breakdown by bacteria can provide a helpful tool as part of an offshore oil spill response but raise concerns about the environmental impacts of their use.

In January of this year the Alaska Regional Response Team, the advisory board for coordinating the government response to Alaska oil spills, approved a new plan for the use of dispersants around the coast of Alaska. That plan includes a dispersant pre-authorization zone in a region north and south of the Alaska Peninsula and extending around southern Alaska to Prince William Sound. The idea of the pre-authorization zone is to expedite the deployment of dispersants, to minimize the impact of an oil spill on the shoreline.

Of particular concern is the potential for an accident involving an oil tanker operating in the region.

As part of the implementation of the dispersant use plan, agencies want to specify any environmentally sensitive areas where dispersant use should be avoided within the pre-authorization zone. A proposal to use dispersant within any of these avoidance areas would require additional scrutiny before any approval, including consultation with the appropriate government wildlife agencies.

ADEC, the USCG and EPA are inviting public comments on potential avoidance areas and are also holding a series of public informational meetings about dispersants in Kenai, Valdez, Kodiak and Unalaska. Comments are required by Jan. 9. Ultimately, a technical committee will review comments received to recommend avoidance areas for approval as part of the dispersant use plan.

Further information is available at http://nukadraft.wixsite.com/avoidanceareas.

- ALAN BAILEY