Oily water spill into Port Valdez continues days after discovery

Response crews on Saturday have pinpointed the primary entry point of an oily water spill that for several days has seeped into Port Valdez.

The source of the leak — a drain area about a quarter-mile uphill from the water — was halted on Monday. It was discovered on April 12.

But the oily mix has continued to travel beneath snow and into the water at the Valdez Marine Terminal, where tankers are filled with oil.

The cause of the leak remained under investigation on Saturday by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and others. Operations at the terminal have not been affected.

More than 230 people locally and around the state are involved in the response, and around 5 miles of oil-containing boom have been deployed on the water, an incident management team said in a prepared statement Saturday evening.

The exact amount of oil spilled is unknown. About 720 barrels of oily water mix, or 30,240 gallons, had been collected as of 6 a.m. Saturday. The spill response team on Saturday estimated that about eight barrels of oil, or 315 gallons, have been recovered so far.

The oily water’s primary entry point into the port was described as “a rocky area new the low tide line, which indicates a flow path below ground,” the incident management team said. Crews were digging through earth uphill from that point “to create a potential collection point and prevent more oily water from entering the water.” Similar work was being done in other areas, including around the spill’s source.

“Finding the flow path will be challenging,” said Mike Day, incident commander and the unified command’s representative for Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. “It requires significant and precise excavation. Digging is routine work on the VMT and for Alyeska, and we know it takes time and diligence that ensures that we do it right.”

Snow on the ground and buried infrastructure that can be damaged complicated efforts to address the spill for responders on land Friday.

Boats using boom have contained the oil on the water to an area near the small boat harbor at the terminal, though some oil appeared outside the boom on Friday before crews responded “with current buster boom and absorbent material.”

The spill has caused the death of four oiled birds, including two found Saturday, and oily water continued to seep into Port Valdez. Additional boom was set up around environmentally sensitive areas.

“We train hard to protect wildlife in these challenging situations, and any loss is difficult," Day said Friday.

Booms and skimmers atop the water continue to work to contain the additional pollution.

Donna Schantz, head of a citizen oversight group for Prince William Sound, said it’s common for some oil to escape the booms.

She said additional fishing vessels with crews that are trained to contain spills have been deployed as precautionary measure to protect sensitive habitat outside the spill area.

It will be some time before the team, which includes Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. that runs the terminal, can provide an estimate of the amount of oil that leaked.

“It’s an oil-water mix and doesn’t appear at all to be from a crude (oil) line,” Schantz said.

“They seem to be doing a really good job of containing this and observing and monitoring it,” she said.

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