Cantwell plan boosts oil-spill precautions

Seeking to beef up protections against a possible oil spill in Puget Sound, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell on Sunday announced a multimillion-dollar proposal to amend legislation passed in the wake of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.

The oil industry would bear the cost of the regulations, said Cantwell. The proposal would require more tugboat escorts for tankers in Puget Sound, a permanent rescue tugboat stationed near the entrance to the Sound, and federal funding for a state oil-spill task force. It would also raise the cap on how much a company could be required to pay for cleaning up a spill.

"We clearly must do more to further strengthen our oil-spill-prevention safety net," she said at a news conference Sunday at the Port of Seattle, with Elliott Bay as her backdrop.

It's not clear how well the Democratic senator's proposal will fare in the Republican-controlled Senate. It would be introduced in the Commerce Committee, chaired by Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican with close ties to the oil industry. The two have sparred recently over Stevens' attempt to roll back restrictions on oil-tanker traffic in Puget Sound.

Stevens' spokeswoman, Courtney Boone, said the senator doesn't comment on legislation that hasn't been introduced.

Frank Holmes of the Western States Petroleum Association said much of Cantwell's proposal appears to duplicate what is already going on or to require additional, unnecessary protections.

"Puget Sound is probably the safest place of anywhere in the nation, from an oil-spill perspective," said Holmes, whose group represents oil companies on the West Coast.

Dale Jensen, head of the state Department of Ecology's oil-spill program, expressed interest in funding for a year-round tugboat stationed in Neah Bay that could help tankers if they lose power or drift off course while making their way into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, most often bound for refineries in Anacortes or near Bellingham.

The state spends roughly $1.4million a year putting a tug there between September and May, Jensen said.

Cantwell's legislation would shift the tug's cost to the oil industry, through a network of industry-funded oil-spill cleanup companies.

The legislation also would require two tugboats to escort double-hull oil tankers in Puget Sound. Now the escorts are required only for single-hull tankers, which are considered more vulnerable to punctures and spills.

While oil-spill safety has improved, Cantwell said, dangers remain from the roughly 600 oil-tanker and 3,000 oil-barge trips that occur each year in the Sound.

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com