Though the Drift River oil terminal has so far withstood everything thrown at it by Redoubt volcano over the last eight days, officials and environmental watchdogs remain concerned about the 6 million gallons of crude still in storage there.

Over the weekend, Chevron, the operator of the terminal, and state and federal regulators agreed to set up a joint emergency command to monitor events and also to be able to move quickly in the event of a disaster, said Bob Mattson, a state oil-spill prevention official in Juneau.

Mattson said Sunday that one of the first tasks for the team is to decide whether to stage extra emergency response equipment in anticipation of a spill.

That's exactly what the environmental organizations Cook Inletkeeper and Trustees for Alaska asked Gov. Sarah Palin to order in a letter Friday. The organizations also want the tanks drained, but said they recognized there were risks associated with removing the oil.

"There are no risks associated with ensuring that emergency oil-spill response equipment is moved into position so that it can be deployed immediately in the event of a catastrophic failure of the Drift River Terminal tank farm," said the letter.

A spokeswoman for Palin said the governor has received the letter.

"While no official response has been sent, the state is working closely with federal agencies coordinating the response for the Drift River situation," Sharon Leighow of the governor's office said in an E-mail message Sunday. "This includes evaluating the need for heightened spill response capability."

Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, said there currently isn't enough equipment in the area around Drift River to contain and clean up a worst-case oil spill of 6 million gallons.

"Here's another Exxon Valdez right in front of our eyes," Shavelson said, referring to the 1989 spill of 11 million gallons of North Slope crude in Prince William Sound.

The terminal sits in the flood plain of the Drift River, and the volcano sits above a massive glacier that feeds the river. Hot gas and ash in the current eruption cycle have been melting portions of the glacier, sending flash floods of water and mud racing downstream.

Because of the dangers, Cook Inlet Pipeline Co., the owner of the facility, evacuated it last Monday, but crude oil remains stored in two tanks. The terminal is the final stage for oil pumped from Cook Inlet platforms and processed onshore in Trading Bay. Tankers periodically pick up oil stored in the facility and deliver it to the Tesoro refinery in Nikiski.

An overflight of the terminal Saturday showed that no water had penetrated the dike built to protect the facility after the 1989-1990 Redoubt eruptions, said Mattson, spill-prevention program manager with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. The flight, of DEC and Coast Guard officials, showed the river had abandoned its older normal channel east of the terminal and moved into another on the west side. That's better news for the tanks, he said, but the river, running through braided channels in its plain, can be expected to shift unpredictably at any time when it's in flood stage, he said.

A tanker had been previously scheduled to arrive at the facility April 4, Mattson said, but the loading operation may be moved up to Wednesday. That would allow Cook Inlet Pipeline, partly owned by Chevron, to lower the level in the two tanks to about 1.8 million gallons each. Operators are reluctant to go lower because it would increase the risk that the tanks could float off their foundations if the tank farm was inundated.

"We'd feel better if there wasn't anything in there," Mattson said, but added that he understood that leaving some oil in the tanks would mean operations could resume quicker once it was safe for crews to return.

Find Richard Mauer online at adn.com/contact/rmauer or call 257-4345.

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