Unannounced Oil Spill Drill Called by ADEC

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conversation called an unannounced oil spill drill on Tuesday, February 27 in Valdez. The scenario was a major tanker accident, requiring a full ramp-up and complete deployment of the Incident Command System (ICS) organization. The Valdez Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) was activated with phones, computers, fax machines, video, and printers brought on-line. In less than 2 hours, over 100 people responded to the all-day tabletop drill. A similar number of people elsewhere within the TAPS organizations also provided assistance. The purpose of a drill like this is to test response and identify areas that may require improvement.

Pipeline Shutdown for Less Than 1 Hour

The trans-Alaska pipeline was shutdown for about 30 minutes Monday morning February 26th after a relay device failed at Pump Station 5. The relay device, used to protect against circuit overload, failed at 8:53 AM. As designed, the malfunction in the circuit caused a "shutdown message" to be sent to pump stations 4 and 5, causing the oil to stop flowing through the pipeline.

The relay device was replaced and is now working properly. The pipeline was restarted and returned to normal operation by 9:22 AM. Alyeska officials are investigating the cause of the failed relay system.

Valdez Berth Status Report

This is a brief status report of current berth operations at the Valdez Marine Terminal. Over the past several months a number of different projects have been underway dealing with a number of berth related issues.

BERTH 5:

This berth is fully operational for crude oil loading and deballasting. It is scheduled to undergo maintenance to put it on a 10-year maintenance rotation, later this summer.

BERTH 4:

Berth 4 was returned to 100% loading and deballasting capability over the weekend. It had been loading at 75% since December 16th. Maintenance work, begun last August to bring Berth 4 under a 10-year maintenance rotation, included the installation of 16-inch flow valves. These 16-inch valves had to removed and the original 24-inch valves reinstalled after terminal personnel noticed cavitation during loading as flow volume increased. Three of the four original 24" values were available for immediate installation. A fourth valve was removed from Berth 1, refurbished and installed on Berth 4.

BERTH 3:

This berth is fully operational for crude oil loading and deballasting. It was returned to 100% deballasting capability on February 15th. It had been available for crude oil loading only. This berth was taken out of service for routine maintenance last July at which time inspection of the ballast water piping revealed serious corrosion in the berth sump, ballast piping liner failure in some areas and a one inch diameter penetration of the pipe wall. All repairs have been made and a letter of adequacy issued by the United States Coast Guard.

BERTH 1:

This berth is operational for crude oil loading and deballasting at 75%.

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