Orcas Events: Saturday March 15, Episcopal Parish Hall at 12:30 p.m. & Sunday, March 23, Senior Center at 3 p.m.
— from Janet Alderton —
March 24, 2014 is the 25th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Many parts of Prince William Sound, where the spill occurred, have yet to fully recover from the catastrophic spill. Could such a disaster happen here in our San Juan Islands? The answer is, unfortunately, yes. Multiple projects have been proposed that would significantly increase the traffic of large ships carrying fossil fuels through the hazard-filled waterways that surround our islands. Coal from the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point would be transported in very large ships that carry hundreds of thousands of gallons of dirty propulsion fuel. Tankers from the proposed expansion of the Westridge Marine Terminal near Vancouver, B.C. would carry diluted Tar Sands bitumen through our waters. A significant increase in the numbers of ships transporting fossil fuel through our waters will place our islands at increased risk for a major spill.
The San Juans Alliance is a diverse group of citizens that call the San Juan Islands home. We are united in our concerns about the adverse impacts to our economy and our environment from the transport of fossil fuels through the Salish Sea. We have organized two free events on Orcas that will help us to understand the consequences of a major fuel spill in our islands’ marine waters and the local resources for responding to fossil fuel spills. The questions of who should pay for spill preparedness, spill response, and the damages caused by a major spill will also be discussed.
On Saturday, March 15 from 12:30-2:30 PM at Orcas Emmanuel Parish Hall: Gary Shigenaka, a marine biologist for NOAA, who studies the effects of oil spills on marine life, will talk about how various cargo and propulsion oils would likely behave if spilled in our marine environment. Julie Knight, Executive Director of Islands Oil Spill Association (IOSA), will talk about local spill response preparedness.
And on Sunday, March 23 at 3:00 PM at the Orcas Senior Center, there will be a free screening of the award-winning documentary, Black Wave: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez.
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The author raises an important issue, the preparedness of local authorities for damaging environmental consequences of an oil spill. Yet the assertion of “another Exxon Valdez could happen here” is needlessly alarmist and perhaps worse, focuses attention on a mega-catastrophe when the more likely scenario is a series of smaller oil spills occuring in the less easily navigable waters closer to the Kitimat Terminal, especially in the so-called Confined Channel Assessment Area. Has the author reviewed the extensive reports analyzing the risks and consequences of the proposed marine route? Without an objective assessment of the likely probabilities and type of an environmental disaster, we run the risk of diluting our environmental activism in the eyes of the marauding spoilers. It is critical that environmental activism be based on solid science, that the regulatory authorities may be convinced to act in the best interests of the respective stakeholders.