An effort by the U.S. Coast Guard to create a national inventory of boats and equipment around the nation that could be sent to fight the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill has raised alarms among state officials and a watchdog group in Prince William Sound.
The Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., sent the orders last week, with a count of equipment expected to reach top officials by Friday. "We need as much, as many resources as possible to continue fighting the oil as far off shore as possible," said Lt. Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, Coast Guard chief of media relations in D.C .
Admiral Robert J. Papp, commandant of the Coast Guard, wants to "maximize the availability of response equipment to support Deepwater Horizon operations in the Gulf of Mexico while retaining an acceptable floor for oil spill response readiness throughout the nation," according to the orders.
The Coast Guard order goes on to say that "due to urgent needs, the Coast Guard acknowledges the increased risk" associated with sending equipment around the country to the Gulf Coast. That risk, the orders say, could come from making temporary exemptions to the amount of equipment and boats required to plan for the worst-case spills.
On Friday the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council sent a letter to the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Unit in Valdez warning against pulling too many resources from the site of the nation's last major oil spill.
"It would be a tragic irony if the failure to prepare for an effective response in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in a drawdown of resources in Alaska to the extent that the oil industry became unable to mount an effective response in Prince William Sound," wrote Mark Swanson, executive director for the council.
Congress created the industry-funded council as a watchdog in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
No decision has been made about how much equipment could be moved from Alaska or other parts of the country to help combat the Gulf spill and Coast Guard officials say they're looking to protect each region's ability to respond to local spills.
"The question at hand is ... looking at what is available there that could be brought to bear while maintaining an acceptable level of readiness," O'Neil said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is keeping a wary eye on the process.
Commissioner Larry Hartig said the Coast Guard is tallying all equipment beyond one of the lowest federal spill response preparedness levels -- one that DEC officials say would represent "a substantial drop" below the state's legal requirements.
"We're hoping we'll be able to work with the Coast Guard in a very deliberate way to keep sending the resources to the gulf without having to compromise our spill response planning standards here," he said.
As part of the national tally, the Coast Guard may be applying more strict, federal worst-case scenario preparedness requirements in Alaska or at least in the Prince William Sound area, according to the citizens advisory council letter.
"I think what they're doing basically is putting together a shopping list. And based on what they need, they'll know where to find it," said Roy Robertson, project manager for the advisory council in Valdez.
The orders to catalog spill response equipment was sent to every unit in the Coast Guard, said Lt. Mickey Sanders, who is working on the effort in Alaska. Here, the Coast Guard has been collecting information on equipment from oil spill response companies such as Alaska Clean Seas, a not-for-profit cooperative of oil companies including BP and Conoco Phillips.
Based on his 11 years in the Coast Guard, Sanders said he can't imagine the agency allowing equipment to leave Alaska that would push preparedness levels below the state's legal limits -- at least without an agreement from the state.
"We don't make decisions that would jeopardize the state's requirements, and vice versa," he said.
In Prince William Sound, the citizens' advisory council doesn't want the level of spill response equipment to fall below the amount required by state law. That's enough people, boats and tools to collect 300,000 barrels of oil within 72 hours.
Twenty-one years ago, help arrived from all over to battle the Exxon Valdez oil spill, said Stan Stephens a Valdez tour operator who sits on the council. "And so you have to ask: Where's the dividing line here? How much oil spill response equipment do we allow to leave this area in order to help out, because we have a responsibility to go down there and help as much as we can."
At the same time, Stephens said, Alaska needs to be able to react quickly to problems at home.
Already, some Alaska equipment and workers have headed to the gulf, including skimmers, thousands of feet of boom and roughly 85,000 gallons of dispersant, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com