Alyeska conducts Yukon River spill response exercise

Alyeska Pipeline Service Company conducted a response exercise at the Yukon River on Sept. 14. Alyeska, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and Joint Pipeline Office personnel participated in the drill. The scenario was designed to test Alyeska's ability to respond to a release of oil near the Yukon River, a sensitive environmental area along the 800-mile-long pipeline route. Spill prevention is Alyeska's top priority, but it is committed to maintaining a fast and effective response to minimize environmental harm should a spill event occur.

Alyeska prepares for the unexpected by conducting more than 80 drills and exercises on the pipeline every year to test the effectiveness and execution of its oil spill response plans. Each scenario is unique to the geographical and operational situation along the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS).

Responding to a real-life incident requires a tremendous amount of coordination and teamwork to ensure a cooperative and effective response. The standard emergency management method used by the oil spill response community is called the Incident Command System (ICS). The ICS is a sophisticated response plan that helps meld the organizations that are required to respond to a spill. Members from Alyeska, federal and state agencies are assigned specific functions, ensuring that all responders, regardless of company or agency, know their role in the ICS and all are committed to a unified plan. The ICS was developed to provide a consistent organization for emergency response.

Drills play a critical role in Alyeska's ability to evaluate personnel in their assigned ICS roles and test response equipment. Responders used Alyeska's Mobile Command Post to establish a direct communication link between the exercise area and the Fairbanks Emergency Operations Center (FEOC).

"The ability for the FEOC to see the real-time and real-life pictures of the actual incident is an absolute improvement. It assists the EOC with developing a real understanding of the field responders' tasks and that appreciation will lead to a more effective support of the response," said Kenn Kadow, an evaluator of the Yukon River Drill. "It brings real-time information from the field into the emergency operations center quickly and accurately."