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1989-07-24 Regular MeetingKodiak Emergency Services Ccuncil Agency Meeting Exxon Valdez Oil Spill July 24, 1989 5:25 p.m. JAY BELLINGER (FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE) - Wildlife wise, it is interesting, the things going on. The number of distressed birds has increased up to two to three average per day now, live ones, coming in. We did an analysis on how many dead ones we have picked up per day out in the zone and it was running, let's see, the week before the 13th of July, averaged 70 dead birds a day; we didn't have data the 13th through the 18th; the four days, the 19th -22nd averaged 50 dead birds a day. So, we are still having a lot of birds picked up. Sea otters, the last 45 days, went from 50 total cumulative dead sea. otters from the 7th of June. We are now at 115, so we average 1.4 dead sea otters per day. The reason I did all this was because we got notice from Exxon that they are going to cut back in the wildlife boats. We fared pretty good in Kodiak. The word we got was we're going to be reduced to eight boats. We were at ten bird -catcher boats and one otter boat, so didn't have any choice in this, it was a directive from Valdez. JEROME SELBY (KODIAK ISLAND BOROUGH MAYOR) - Do you still have your Eagle Team, Jay, or did they cut that out too? BELLINGER - Oh no, we got the Eagle Team. Jack got a hold of me right away with the word and asked me, you know, if you gotta have x -number of boats, you know, which ones would be the ones to go and I had to analyze the situation in Kodiak. He was helpful, it was out of Valdez, is where you have to look. JERRY HAMMOND (NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE) - I just have a question for Jay. Would any of those catcher boats include ours? The reason I'm asking is we have RPO's on some of those and if we could just get a few days notice. BELLINGER - We are protecting you, Jerry. HAMMOND - Well, if you could give us a few days notice, because sometimes we have people enroute up to board those vessels and. BELLINGER - My answer is, we are protecting you. SELBY - Why don't you go ahead, Jerry. You got the floor here. HAMMOND - The National Parks Service had three RPO's arrive last night. We've got all three of them on vessels. Almost everyone in our organization is flying today. They are either on fixed wing, helicopters, or piggy back with other agencies. I appreciate the cooperation. I'd like to make a recommendation to NOAA with the Shoreline Clean Up Priority 0400 List, which we're working with, to include the areas down past K-9 or 10, and the area in K-12. The only other thing I have to report is I'd like to thank DEC. We commandeered one of their planes on the 21st when one of our RPO's had a reoccurrence of a cancer condition. They got him on a plane and had him in Seattle for treatment by 5:00 the next morning. KEN MIDDLETON (FISH AND GAME) - Our activities were a little bit reduced over the weekend, our Exxon loan heliocopter was dedicated elsewhere. In lieu of that, we were invited to look at Tugidak with the SCAT Team. We sure appreciate it. It being the same critical habitat area, we were very interested in it. That team got in there, I believe it was Friday or Saturday, Sunday was weathered out, didn't make it all the way down. But, they did wrap up that survey this morning and we had a set of stipulations. I understand that from their field representative that they anticipate going in there at the end of the month for recommended clean up. They're going in there around the 29th, I believe, of this month, and we will have a set of stipulations for that process to present at the community meeting tomorrow. Also, we hope to be bringing another man on this week. We figure the next two or three weeks from a fisheries and survey standpoint is going to be rather tense and critical. The Joint Operations with DEC now. We had three full-time copters available, so we had three full surveys daily, covering Kodiak, Afognak, and over the mainland area too. I did pick up one new item that's going to be conducted here from a Fish and Game standpoint. There's going to be a bi-valve clam damage assessment program. This one is called Outside Prince William Sound. This one is going to be Cook Inlet, Kodiak, and Alaska Mainland -Peninsula area. It will be headed up by two staff members out of our Homer office. We will be operating in this area and we will be providing logistical support. That's going to be starting up here soon, I don't know exactly when and it will be conducted this year and next year as well. SELBY - Fish and Game doing that yourself, with your own personnel, totally in-house? MIDDLETON - That's right. SELBY - Do you know what the situation is with the fishing season and that kind of stuff? MIDDLETON - No, I do know there is still quite a bit of sheen. SELBY - Nothing too positive in prognosis for near term then? MIDDLETON - Not that I'm aware of. SELBY - Ralph, do you have anything from Akhiok? RALPH ELUSKA (AKHIOK) - No, I'm just visiting today. 04005 SELBY - Exxon. JACK RICKNER (EXXON) - We have 14 teams working in Cape Douglas and Wally Bay. We're working up the west side of Afogank. One team, I believe is still in Izhut Bay, and another team is in Ugak and our road teams continue to operate. We did get four teams operational, three of those teams are working in the Kodiak area. I did have a question, somebody came in the office today and said there were four test fishery boats in town, and had been in town, they thought, three or four days. Somebody should check on that. I anticipate, I had hoped that we would have Teams 15 and 16 out on Wednesday. I talked to Veco today about that, and it looks like it will probably be Thursday, not Wednesday. SELBY - Both 15 and 16, or just one of the two? RICKNER - No, we're gonna have that one vessel with about 36 people and we'll probably have a small seiner along with it for assist. Then we'll have another larger vessel. We'll have three boats probably, three teams. SELBY - So, you're gonna send all three teams across? OK. RICKNER - We are also trying to get a timeline on the things that we have, the priority list provided for an analysis of how much needs to be cleaned up, trying to get a timeline to show everybody what our plan is for beach clean up. SELBY - Jack, will that basically cover all of the remaining beaches that have not had any increases? RICKNER - It will cover all the remaining beaches on the priority list. SELBY - Now, when you say the priority list, are you talking about just the SCAT's beaches, or are you talking about all the beaches that we know have been reported with oil? RICKNER - What we did was, we sat down with Fred, myself, Wayne, and a couple people from Exxon and took the list of priorities provided by the Inter Agency group plus whatever we knew. Hopefully, I'll have that to you in not too long. SELBY - Well, I think that would really help a lot as far as trying to look at where we're going to, well, how in the world we're going to get from here to there by September 15. Because it's very apparent to me that your company intends to be out of here on September 16. And that's not aimed at you. When your president stands up in front of the Congressional Committee and tells them that you're out of here on September 15, I kind of suspect that's exactly what's gonna happen since he's the man who gives the orders. So, the reality is that now that we've established that we are going to be done on September 15, no 0400( matter what anyone wants to have happen, we'll see how much we're going to get done. I'm assuming that there's some commitment from Exxon to put more people on, if that's what it takes to be done by September 15. Have you, how many other cutbacks then have you been instructed? I guess that's what leaves me uncomfortable with that. If the intent is to put enough people on to be done by September 15 then that's great, but if we're starting to take folks away, and not that necessarily the critter teams reduce the number of people picking up oil, obviously, we can't both cut back on effort and hit September 15. We can't get there from here, I've said that several times. RICKNER - When you get the timeline, that will help. SELBY - I agree, and that's why I probably don't know the answer either, but what's going to happen if we look at that and all conclude that we're going to need 10 more beach crews? Now, I'm just pulling a number out of the air. Are you going to be authorized to put 10 more on there? Do you have a sense for that at all? RICKNER - No, I don't. SELBY - What's your sense of cannery worker checks? Is there gonna be another round of checks issued for those folks, Jack? RICKNER - That's out of my area and I've really not been involved in that. SELBY - Can you have John come prepared to address that in the morning at the 10:00 meeting? RICKNER - I'll see that he does that. SELBY - Okay, thanks. BICKNER - That would be a second assistance check? SELBY - Right. The $1,000.00 is going to run out fairly quickly and obviously, they are still not working. When we had originally talked about this over at the auditorium, we had talked about if we continued not to have a salmon season to try to get a check out every two weeks or so to the folks. Not unlike what they'd be doing if working in the cannery; and try to put some normalcy back in their life for the balance of the summer or, if we get a salmon season, whichever comes first. At the moment, it appears that needing checks is the short term priority so if he could address that those folks are, well nervous isn't the word, they are worried about feeding their family. It would be good to put that out over the air so that there is some reassurance that something's happening there and we're not just gonna sit here for weeks with $1,000.00 0400 supposedly covering beans for two months, it's just not going to happen. BRODIE - It would be nice if they had some answer too, about this outside of salmon area impact. Why those cannery workers aren't considered. That's been a controversy I read in the paper the other day, I haven't been involved in any of that discussion. RICKNER - I don't understand any of that. SELBY - Our indication this morning was that it's not resolved, Jack. Again, that's something that's probably going to be the issue at the meeting tomorrow morning and so it will probably be wise to have John come prepared to say what is going to happen. The salmon only thing popped up the day the checks started to be issued. That's the first time anyone in this community had heard anything about salmon only for cannery workers checks, and we've got some folks who were working on bottomfish who lost out of work starting back in April and still are not working, and part of it's because the fishing boats who normally would have been catching those fish are on contract to Exxon, and have been since April and weren't delivering fish to the docks. Anyways, he needs to be aware that that's going to be next. He needs to be ready, because the word I got today is that some of those people will be here in the morning to talk about that, so if he comes prepared with an answer, the meeting is going to go a whole lot better in the morning. Forewarned is forearmed, so if he can come, come prepared for that issue, not that he has to have the final answer, but he needs to have, to tell them what's going to happen to get an answer and give them a time frame and meeting place. BRODIE - I have a question for you about Veco. Are you confident that Veco is out there working for your best advantage, for Exxon? Over the weekend I got barraged from different angles about different things about Veco. One about some of the field supervisors coming on boats and being pretty abusive and actually challenging people to fight. The other was crews not being very motivated to stay active to pick up the oil. RICKNER - Well that's our Exxon supervisors. No, I am sure that they are trying to keep everyone motivated. If there's a problem with our Exxon supervisors, I haven't heard, they are people that I know and my impression is that they are doing a fine job. I'd like to know the particulars, it isn't something we want to happen. It doesn't help our image, so if you have the particulars I'd appreciate knowing the names of people making the accusations and know the names of the people accused of that so we can confront them. We can find out, you know, do a little bit of investigating. BRODIE - Okay, I'll talk to you later. SELBY - You might just put the word down at Veco anyway, Sack. I've had three today, and kind of tell them that the Veco supervisors are telling crews to slow down. RICKNER - Well, we don't like to throw money away. SELBY - I'm sure you don't like throwing money away and we don't like folks being told to stop picking up oil if they can be picking it up and so I think we have a common interest there to encourage folks to be as productive as they can while on the beach. The concern I have, is that I am getting too many of these now to tell me it's just one unhappy employee who's trying to cause a problem for his supervisor, or whatever the problem may be there and a little too frequent. RICKNER - I think there's enough work out there that they don't have to worry about job security. SELBY - That's kind of my impression that it's going on so, but other obviously. Did we make any progress for boats promising to go ashore if RICKNER - I don't think that's gonna get ashore to work those areas and areas, we would like to use them. SELBY - Great. too, that's folks have with getting it is stormy? kind of funny other agendas authorization be a problem, if they can are willing to work those BRODIE - Someone should probably come talk to the Shoreline Committee then. If he is going to start putting constraints outside of the approved Kodiak plan, then somehow we need to get that resolved. PHIL SMITH (USCG) - I am not saying it is a problem, I have potential problems with it. SELBY - Well, we certainly need to make sure they mark exactly where they clean as they go. That definitely needs to be communicated so they understand that they have that responsibility. I think everyone concurs with that. WAYNE COLEMAN (CITY OF KODIAK) - That was stressed very strongly to these people, among other things, in their radio comma. They have a pretty good network with radio communications, set up for that operation. There was a lot of things that was directed to them, to get in touch with management by radio. SMITH - I apologize for being late. I'd like to introduce Dennis McGuire, my replacement. He is an Alaskan resident and 04009 is more familiar with geography and the names, and where things are than I probably am, even right now. This afternoon we had Admiral Robbins at a meeting today to discuss the Type -B clean up to take place. His itinerary changed several times this afternoon. I think he even had a radio interview at the Air Station. He regrets not making this meeting or the one tomorrow morning. That's all I have, unless anyone has any questions. I'll be returning around September 1. SELBY - How are the two skimmers doing, that are still here? Are they still being fairly productive in what they are picking up? SMITH - The skimmers with the monitors are not catching much. But, the skimmers without the monitors are catching all kinds of stuff. SELBY - Are they both in Marmot Bay? SMITH - I think so, yes. SELBY - Does anyone know if we succeeded in capturing the large mousse patty that was out in Chiniak Bay here, or did it hit the beach? RICKNER - I do not know, there have been no reports. SELBY - Well Arnie, I guess it's come back to you. ARNIE SITYROCK (DEC) - Yesterday, we had reports that there was substantial impacts on the SW shores of Uganik. This sort of thing was seen in the past when we had NE/NW winds, so we sent two teams to review the cape area from Malina towards Kupreanof and going the other way, from Uyag towards Kupreanof. The claims were exaggerated. The impacts were not great. SELBY - Did you have new impacts though? SITYROCK - Very slight. There is always a little. On this side, on the other hand, there are impacts of very fresh looking mousse and almost no seaweed or other debris attached. We have a lot of activity right here. There has been a lot of heavy sheen reported right off Cape Alitak. The maps that the Borough has been preparing have been a real hit. We appreciate your help on that. In reviewing the passive monitor data, there is an excess of 60 monitors in the western fishing district. This is a cooperative effort between the Borough, DEC, concerned citizens, and the setnetters. Over the last week or so, the substantial impact has been the tar balls. They are starting to harden. So, if you watch the progression of impact, first there's mousse and sheen, then fresh mousse, and now the impact is tarballs with occasional mousse. So, the project is paying off in terms of getting a fairly good idea of what's happening out there. Boats are on-site to replace 04010 monitors and we have a person on board writing things down. Of course, some of the setnetters are keeping good diaries too. SELBY - There is no indication that the oil in the water is slowing down though, as far as continuing to come ashore? SITYROCK - In some places, yes, and in others, no. SELBY - How about the team up in Cape Douglas, Jerry, have you heard from them? Are they still seeing substantial quantities of oil in the water up there? Anyone know? SMITH - No, we were there two days ago. We were in the Chiniak area and then heard about the Cape Douglas area. We went up there and found the reports to be unsubstantiated. This was on Friday. SELBY - Does anyone know if anyone was able to intercept that big bunch of mousse coming out of the Prince William Sound the other day? RICRNER - No one had received a report. SITYROCK - There are skimmers in the area. SELBY - Oh, they did have skimmers working on it then? RICRNER - Yes, they do have skimmers in that area. If you had asked that original question, I would have been able to answer that. SELBY - O.K. RICRNER - Still, reports on that mousse are unconfirmed. SELBY - Whether they scooped that one or not? RICHTNER - Well, if it was even there. SELBY - Oh, I thought that the next day they did confirm it, but it was much smaller. SELBY - Anything else? If not, then we'll see everyone in the morning at 10:00 a.m. The meeting was adjourned at 6:08 p.m. Pq 04011