All ahead stop

U.S. Coast Guard photo by Charly Hengen

None of the fancy technology aboard the 136-foot tug Pathfinder -- not the satellite positioning system, not the radar, not the depth finder capable of sounding depth warnings -- prevented a Dec. 23 collision with Bligh Reef, and Alaskans monitoring oil tanker safety in Prince William Sound say that ought to serve as a warning for everyone concerned about the northern environment.

The Pathfinder grounding, they say, makes it clear Congress needs to reauthorize a requirement all tankers leaving Port Valdez laden with North Slope crude be accompanied by tugs to port and starboard as has been the case since shortly after the Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef in 1989 and started leaking oil. By the time oil stopped gushing from its cracked hull, there were nearly 11 million gallons in the water and one of the worst environmental disasters in North American history was starting to unfold.

"We think you still need the backup of these escorts,'' Stan Jones, director of external affairs Prince William Sound Regional Citizen's Advisory Council, said this week.

"It's probably the most important thing we can do,'' added Stan Stephens, a charter boat skipper in Valdez for more than 40 years. "Not everyone is going to screw up.''

As Stephens points out, the simple beauty of the so-called "Ship Escort Response Vessel System" implemented in the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster is that it requires three key people -- the tanker pilot and the skippers of two tugs -- to screw up for a tanker to hit the reef. Given the almost legendary independence of skippers in Alaska, Stephens said, it is hard to imagine that the captain of a tug to one side of a tanker or the other won't be on the radio pronto wondering what is going on if a tanker even hints at straying form the shipping lane. Most likely, both tug skippers will be on the radio demanding to know what is happening.

Stephens and many others believe these extra eyes aboard the tugs to either side of a tanker trump any sort of technology that might be used to prevent another oil spill. In the case of the Pathfinder, Jones notes, there was only one crew watching what was going on, and though that Crowley Maritime crew was aided by plenty of technology, something still went wrong.

Not only did the navigation systems aboard the tug somehow fail to alert the crew to danger, Jones said, so did the Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Center in Valdez, which is supposed to track tankers and tugs using the shipping lane into and out of Valdez. The center has radar watching the Sound, and the tankers and tugs are supposed to carry "position and identification reporting equipment" to enable the traffic center to track them in much the way air-traffic controllers follow the movement of airplanes fitted with transponders. And yet the Pathfinder somehow strayed off course even farther than the Exxon Valdez. The latter struck bottom in about 35 feet of water. The former had to get so close to the center of the reef that its keel hit the rocks in 17 feet.

"We don't know if they were watching (in the traffic center),'' Jones said, "or if they were watching and didn't do anything. These are both questions we are trying to get answers to. So far, the Coast Guard are playing their cards awfully close to their chest.''

The Coast Guard says it is investigating both the grounding of the Pathfinder and the performance of the Vessel Traffic Center. Jones said the advisory council wholly endorses the former investigation, but has some reservations about the latter. It can be hard for federal agencies to impartially investigate themselves, Jones said.