Guest columnist
Getting ready for the next oil spill in Puget Sound

By John S. Devens
Special to The Times

DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES A contract worker helping with cleanup of the Dalco Passage oil spill inspects the shoreline next to the Tahlequah ferry.

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Much of the anguish of that time came back to me as I read and watched coverage of the Dalco Passage spill in Puget Sound.

I was particularly dismayed to see that — despite the lessons of the Exxon Valdez — your responders appeared to have been nearly as unprepared as ours were in 1989. According to news reports, it took more than six hours for the simple first step — notification — to occur, and more precious time after that for people and equipment to reach the scene. By then, as with the Exxon Valdez, it was too late. The oil had spread too far to be contained and miles of beaches were fouled.

	John S. Devens, executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council

Luckily, your spill was relatively small and damage to wildlife appears limited because many species hadn't arrived for the winter. Still, given the lack of readiness that apparently slowed the response, it's impossible not to worry about what would happen if Puget Sound had a catastrophic spill.

What would that be like? Take the damage caused by the 1,000 gallons spilled in Dalco Passage and multiply it — not by 10, or even 100 or 1,000 — but by 11,000. That gives some idea of what a Valdez-scale spill of 11 million gallons could do to your beautiful Sound.

According to news accounts, citizens of Puget Sound are asking themselves, "What now? What can we do to make sure we're ready if there's a next time?"

Since 1989, many safety improvements have been made to the oil-transportation system in Prince William Sound — better radar, better tankers and an elaborate escort system, to name a few.

And I am part of what I consider an equally important post-Exxon Valdez innovation: the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council. Our group formed shortly after the spill to guarantee a forceful voice for citizens in the oil-transportation decisions that so directly affect them. I have been executive director of the council for the past seven years.

Our main job is to prevent a resurgence of the complacency that allowed the Exxon Valdez to happen. We scrutinize every facet of crude-oil transportation in Prince William Sound: contingency planning, prevention measures, response readiness, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company and its fleet of escort tugs, the oil tankers and the companies that run them, the oil terminal in Valdez, and regulators such as the U.S. Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Many safety improvements here resulted from advocacy by our group, and many others were strengthened by our involvement in their development.

While nothing can guarantee against another catastrophic spill, I believe citizen oversight has been crucial in reducing risks in Prince William Sound. Citizens never let up. They stay in place as industry and agency personnel rotate through the system. Unlike regulators and elected officials, citizens are relatively immune to being lobbied or "captured" by the industry they oversee. And, perhaps most importantly, citizens have the most to lose from a catastrophic spill.

What does it take to make citizen oversight work? Many things, but two top the list.

Independence is the first necessity. The governing board must consist entirely of citizens. No company or agency should have a voting seat. And board members must be chosen by the communities and interest groups they represent, not appointed by an elected official, an agency head, or an industry executive.

Guaranteed funding is also essential, and it should be paid by the cost-causer — that is, the shipping industry being overseen — not by the communities at risk from shipping operations. Overseeing a complex shipping system is expensive, requiring a professional staff and frequent recourse to hired experts for technical analysis and advice. We have a staff of 17 and a yearly budget of about $3 million.

While our oversight responsibilities are confined to the North Slope crude-oil trade in Prince William Sound, we also serve as a demonstration project under federal law. If someone wants to set up a Puget Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council, we'd be happy to explain in detail how we work and what we've learned since 1989.

John S. Devens is executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council (www.pwsrcac.org). He can be reached in Valdez at 907-835-5957. The council's 18 member organizations are communities affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, including aquaculture, commercial fishing, environmental, Native, recreation and tourism groups.