Handling hazardous materials: providing critical links in keeping Alaska clean.

AuthorKlouda, Naomi
PositionENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

A tanker-trailer hauling diesel fuel from Fairbanks to the North Slope went off the Dalton Highway the afternoon of June 7, 2014, and rolled. The injured driver required a medivac to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

The ruptured container spilled 2,500 gallons of fuel onto the tundra wetlands 110 miles south of Deadhorse. An additional 7,149 gallons of fuel needed to be pumped from the damaged trailer. Both Alaska Chadux Corporation and NRC Alaska (formerly Emerald Alaska), were called to respond by the trucking company's owner, NANA Oilfield Services, Inc. (NOSI).

The manner in which cleanup proceeded shows companies in an action chain that's become crucial for Alaska spill response. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC) "situation report" described it in what also has become routine: a report to the public.

Chadux and NRC Alaska conducted the emergency cleanup, which involved round-the-clock shift work and dozens of trained employees. A slick had traveled five hundred feet downstream, requiring boom absorbents and streamside platforms built from plywood on the spot. There were two stages.

"First there's an emergency response to an uncontrolled release of diesel spilled in the creek and on the wetlands," says Steve Russell, a state on-scene coordinator at ADEC. "The second stage is when they move into 'project mode.' Now the fuel isn't moving, now it is under control. Now they decide whether to excavate the soil, flush it or burn it, or use a fertilizer treatment, or whatever the case maybe. This is engineering that moves beyond emergency response."

Each company response fills a piece in the puzzle. The nonprofit Chadux is the on-call responder to NOSI's North Slope fuel tank farm. NRC Alaska, the largest Primary Response Action Contractor (PRAC) in the state, was called in for its manpower and equipment, such as the vacuum trucks that literally swept spilled fuel off the tundra. Then, NRC Alaska's barges dealt with the disposal of soils and/or fuels later on.

"The environmental response industry-including those that can show up in the middle of the night on the side of the road--has grown tremendously over the last decade," Russell says. "More services have become available, and that's good news."

Expanding Opportunity

The past decade witnessed an increasing expertise in oil spill response work and waste disposal that continues to attract new companies to Alaska or expand work opportunities for companies already doing business here. Emerging needs in the Arctic for harbors and services means some companies are already setting expansion plans in place.

There are now eighteen PRACs certified with the A DEC Division of Spill Prevention and Response. Five PRACs are Alaska Native corporation subsidiaries, and four are owned by the major oil and gas companies in the state, including BP, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil. Several are nonprofit regional responders that are member-owned by industries such as those in Cook Inlet and Crowley's fuel barges all along the coast. Three are private corporate entities, including NRC Alaska, the former Emerald Alaska recently purchased by the global National Response Corporation, headquartered in New York.

Russell sees the accumulation of contractors as providing an...

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