Cordova spill response facility nears decision: environmentalists vow lawsuits to halt construction.

• Author: Barry, Mary Lou

After 10 years of studies and another five of agency and public review, Cordova's Shepard Point Oil Spill Response Facility may finally be taking a giant step toward reality.

OVERVIEW

Ordered by a federal judge in 1993, the project was intended to partially compensate the Native Village of Eyak (NVE) for damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. Shepard Point will be the third and final facility built as a result of that order. The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Cordova Oil Spill Response Facility was issued on Dec. 22, 2005. Public hearings took place Jan. 11 and Jan. 12 of this year in Anchorage and Cordova, and a 45-day public comment period was held, ending Feb. 10.

The Shepard Point Oil Spill Response and Deepwater Port Facility project consists of construction of the facility itself, a pre-staging area for oil-spill response equipment, almost 4.5 miles of new road, and a deepwater port. The facility will provide a point of rapid resupply from the Cordova all-weather airport to deep-draft vessels in the event of a catastrophic spill.

The project is supported by the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, and the governor of Alaska. Secured funding is estimated at $17 million. Project costs, recently estimated in the draft EIS, are $32 million. The difference will be made up, according to NVE, by additional fundraising, project phasing and redesign. The City of Cordova, Eyak Corp., Chugach Alaska Corp., BIA, and the State of Alaska will also match costs and materials.

In addition to building the court-ordered facility, the project is expected to provide a tanker-monitoring program, reduced shipping costs for deep-draft ships, docking capability for military craft in the event of a national emergency, and improved access to natural resources for subsistence activities. Fifty new jobs are expected to be created, which proponents claim will dump $30 million into the local economy over the one- to two-year construction phase. When the operation phase begins, three permanent and 20 seasonal jobs are expected to remain.

A TALE OF TWO PROJECTS

Despite years of discussion, any similarity in the ways supporters and opponents view the project is barely recognizable.

"We are still battling the greenies," said Bruce Cain, executive director of the Native Village of Eyak, which supports...