Spill prevention and the challenge of cleaning up oil spill disasters was the focus of a two day presentation to Cordova teens April 11-12, in preparation for an educational tour May 1 aboard an 82-foot catamaran.
The presentation in Lance Westing’s seventh and eighth grade science classes at Cordova High School was led by Lisa Matlock, outreach coordinator for the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council.
Photo by Cinthia Gibbens-Stimson/The Cordova Times
Matlock and Brooke Taylor, director of external communications for the PWSRCAC, were in Cordova April 10-13 to offer education on oil spill prevention and response, and to promote the upcoming fishing vessel training cruise in conjunction with the Ship Escort/Response Vessel System (SERVS) training in Cordova. The tour is sponsored by PWSRCAC.
Matlock and Taylor also met with partners at the Copper River Watershed Project and Prince William Sound Science Center, representatives of the Native Village of Eyak, Cordova City Manager Alan Lanning, and a variety of other residents and organizations.
Forty of the 120 seats aboard the Stan Stephens Cruises catamaran for the free educational tour have been reserved for Westing’s classes. Others interested in joining the tour should sign up in advance at the Copper River Watershed Project’s offices on Main Street. The trip is scheduled, weather permitting, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on May 1.
“While the trip was primarily to highlight the upcoming tour, we were able to discuss a wide variety of topics with community members and talk about the RCAC’s work,” Taylor said.
Westing had requested the presentation to give his students information, background and insight before the tour, she said.
“The first day covered the history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, how our organization was formed from that, and the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, how the oil spill has changed Prince William Sound and the ecosystem contained by it, and techniques used to respond to oil spills,” she said.
Photo by Cinthia Gibbens-Stimson/The Cordova Times
“The second day was an interactive demonstration of how responders would work to contain and cleanup a spill. All of this will help give them context to better understand what they are seeing in action during the tour. We hope that through youth involvement in programs that our younger generations will understand the importance of oil spill prevention and having the most robust response strategies in place in the event of a spill. It is likely that many local youth could become SERVS responders, and the more they know about the importance of the program, the more meaningful their service will eventually be,” she said.
“Since the inception of SERVS, the RCAC has always been highly supportive of local fisherman and mariners being trained annually with the best available technology to prepare for oil spills. This system helps ensure the most comprehensive response measures are in place that incorporate local knowledge and resources that are invaluable to quick, efficient, and effective response. This also assists with the protection of the most sensitive areas, such as hatcheries and spawning streams, that locals have intimate knowledge of and connection to,” said Taylor.
SERVS trainings are split into several segments, due to the number of vessels contracted with the program in Cordova.
The first Cordova session is April 24 – 27, the second session is April 28 – May 1, and there will be a third session in the fall, according to Taylor. Each session consists of two classroom days, followed by two days on the water. “The public event (tour), is to watch just a portion of one of the on-water days,” she said.
Other coastal Alaska communities have separate SERVS training days.
PWSRCAC is an independent non-profit corporation guided by its mission: “Citizens promoting environmentally safe operation of the Alyeska Pipeline marine terminal in Valdez and the oil tankers that use it.”
PWSRCAC members include representatives from communities, aquaculture, commercial fishing, environmental, Alaska Native, recreation, and tourism groups, including communities and interest groups stretching from Prince William Sound to Kodiak Island, to lower Cook Inlet, all areas that were touched by oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.
Photo by Cinthia Gibbens-Stimson/The Cordova Times
