07/31/1989 Regular MeetingEMERGENCY SERVICES COUNCIL
INTER AGENCY MEETING
EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL
MONDAY, JULY 31, 1989
Meeting started at 5:07 p.m.
PETE PROBASCO (ADF&G) - The Chignik Lagoon area and the Moser Olga Bay area
have a potential oil problem. There have been reports of damaged gear in
these areas. Samples were taken and the results should be in by Tuesday
afternoon. The samples were collected from the lead lines. It was a thick,
black gooy substance. There's a load of fish in Alitak that has potential
contamination from the Larsen Bay area. All test boats are out now. The
first scheduled drop of test boats is August 10th.
MIKE GOODWIN (STATE PARKS) - We just got a Department of Natural Resources
representative down here. He will be able to do beach inspections as needed.
He is flying today with DEC. He will be representing the states interest in
tide and submerged lands through out Kodiak. Hopefully with his presence Mike
will have time to pull out of the field for awhile. We flew with NOAA, the
Coast Guard and DEC representatives and reviewed the west end of Shuyak
Strait. This was just west of Port Williams and a east of Neketa Bay. We
determined that there was not enough oil to issue a work order. That's the
S13 sector.
JERRY HAMMOND (NATIONAL PARKS) - On Saturday, we turned in our priority list
for clean up. Today we turned in documentation as to why these areas were
chosen. Such items as pictures and maps of these areas were included as
documentation. This was for the Katmai National Park area. These were turned
into the Coast Guard. We sent one of our head biologists to our cabin for a
couple of days, this is the cabin where we have a couple of people staying
already. Teams 1, 2, and 3 have been weathered in for the last few days.
They are on this side waiting for weather.
DICK HENSEL (ADF&G) - We are phasing out the beach surveillance. We are 2/3
of the way done with the stream and river buoy check. They found one
situation where boom was silted in and actually re -channeling the route of the
stream bed. We will go ahead and complete this work and make a report to the
Coast Guard and make a recommendation as to what to do. One staff member is
going to Tugidak to make one final inspection of that island to see if we
should make adjustments in are oil cleaning priority. We also submitted our
list of priorities on Saturday as well. We are still looking at this list to
make any changes that may be needed.
JOHN HOPKINS (DEC) - We have been working together more with the Coast Guard.
We are coming up with state priorities system now. It's a rather complex
list. Making the list is quite a job. We have just about made it around the
map for a second time. There a several things changing. We have 8 small
heavy hit areas. We are seeing a lot of redistribution. Tracking may take
quite a long time. The tracking may be a real good winter operation just to
see where things are going. Crews are working hard. We would really like
more personnel. We have been working the peninsula as well as the entire
island.
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JEROME SELBY (BOROUGH MAYOR) - Has ISCC people talked to DEC yet about winter
type things?
HOPKINS - We haven't had time yet to discuss this with any great seriousness.
COMMANDER MCGUIRRE (COAST GUARD) - Wants to know the 8 heavily hit areas.
HOPKINS - They are small areas but with heavy concentration. He has a map at
his office. The beaches may be cleaning themselves. A large segment of the
beaches are going to continue cleaning themselves.
HENSEL - Are there only 8 bad areas on Kodiak now?
HOPKINS - No. We have found 8 new secondary heavy hits. These new hits are
not the heavys that were there before. We are seeing what NOAA anticipated...
some oil has vanished. The environment is extremely dynamic. We are still
very worried about the heavily oiled beaches. We are wondering about the type
B beaches and what will happen in the winter if we do not get to them right
now. We believe a lot of that will be eroded out and redistributed, and where
that will happen is any ones guess. We are trying to put together some idea
of currents and things along that order so that we have some idea as to what
to expect. Oil is -organic, hopefully bacteria will get involved. But the
bacteria can't get involved if the substance is not small enough. The oil on
low energy beaches is going down into the sand. It will be there for a span
of time. Possibly even a span of geological time. EPA had been doing some
testing now on bioremediation and there are some possibilities there. But it
is too early to say if that is workable yet. Most of the heads of the bays
are only lightly oiled. Most oil is on high energy beaches.
SELBY - Is the beach with all the dead needle fish a low energy beach??
HOPKINS - Yes, they tend to swim in dense packs and they are a real sensitive
species. We have taken samples of the needle fish and haven't gotten the
results back yet.
SELBY - Are your people keeping a list of the low energy beaches?
HOPKINS - Everyone doing a beach analysis has said weather the beach is a low
energy or high energy beach.
SELBY - Do we have on record the impact on our high and low beaches?
HOPKINS - Yes we do. There is very little oil on the low energy beaches.
Most oil is on the high energy beaches.
WAYNE PURTOM (EXXON) - We have teams 1, 2, and 3 weathered in at Port Bailey.
Teams 15, 16, and 17 are on their way to Katmai, but haven't reached there yet
due to weather in the Shelikof area. The other teams are where they have been;
4, and 12 are in Malina Bay, 5 and 8 are Puale Bay, 7 is in Raspberry
Straight, 9 and 10 are working Shuyak Island, 11 is in Kiluda Bay, while 6 and
13 are finished in Izhut Bay.
SELBY - Are the 3 teams over in Port Bailey working there?
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PURTOM - No. I worked on the data base this weekend. We sat down with the
Commander to discuss the major areas to be addressed between now and the 15th.
We are pleased with the road crew work in the area. The seine fleet is trying
to catch mousse. They added 8 more seiners to the fleet yesterday. We have 2
planes spotting for the fleet.
PROBASCO - What's your plans for Chignik?
PURTOM - Trying to get another test boat to Chignik. We have tried to add more
people, but they are basically out of people. The two Navy skimmers have been
decommissioned. They are being loaded and are going back to Valdez. There
are no more skimmers now. They may add more seiners to the fleet to help.
This decision will be made after an evaluation of the seiner fleet that is
currently working. The new sight for the boat washing station has not been
identified. This station was moved to the middle of Moser Bay and have had
several complaints.
PROBASCO - I recommend that you move the boat cleaning station out of the
Moser Bay area completely. Because ADF&G is expecting a large returnin that
area. They would like to protect the Upper Station area.
SELBY - ADF&G and DEC should get together with Wayne and discuss a better
place to put the boat cleaning station.
MCGUIRRE - Demobilization inspection in K8, K5, and K3 areas. We are sending
out DEC, and Coast Guard teams in Larsen Bay to cover the K6 and K7 area. The
Commandant will be here the 8th of August. NAC meeting August 8th and all
agencies are invited to have a representative there. This should be around
noon time at the Golden Anchor. They would like some representatives from the
villages and local government also. The next NAC meeting will be in the
Borough Conference Room. If you have agenda items you would like to discuss
at the next meeting, you can bring them up at the end of the meetings and we
can talk about them at the next meeting. The Coast Guard is now looking for
winter Ops. We are not demobilizing on Sept. 15th we are preparing to make
transitional operations on 15th. It is a different phase, it is not stopping.
We are planning to have working staff for Fall, Winter, and Spring.
SELBY - Is Jack's schedule done yet? Does it go until September 15th? Can we
get copies of that?
PURTOM - Yes, it is a bar graph type paper with all the plans for the beaches
layed out on it. I'll give you a copy later.
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