Fisheries, Water Quality Issues on Tap for Alaska Forum on the Environment

By Fishermen's News Online

Michelle Ridgeway of Oceanus Alaska will discuss cruise ship routes, wastewater toxins and their effects on wild salmon and other subsistence food resources on the afternoon of Feb. 4.

Dennis McLerran, administrator for EPA Region 10, will deliver a keynote address to the forum on the afternoon of Feb. 5 at the Dena’ina Convention Center.

Earlier in the day the EPA’s Rick Parkin will offer a status report on the Bristol Bay watershed assessment.

Also on the forum agenda are several talks on cleaning up marine debris coming ashore in Alaska from Japanese tsunami, a fish and water quality report for Alaska’s hard rock mines, climate change impact outreach, air quality monitoring, and paralytic shellfish poisoning,

Rachel Lord of Cook Inletkeeper will present an update on the Alaska Clean Harbors program for improving waste management and reducing pollution at Alaskan harbors.

Also on the agenda is the semi-annual meeting of the Prince William Sound Oil Spill Recovery Institute’s advisory board. The institute was established by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to fund and carry out research and development and education on Arctic and sub-Arctic oil spills; spill response technologies; and the assessment of impacts to the environment, economy and

Water Quality Standards of Cruise Ship Discharges Back Before Alaska Legislature

By Fishermen's News Online

Gershon Cohen of Haines was a co-sponsor of the victorious 2006 Cruise Ship ballot initiative that created the current rules. He says the commercial fishing industry should be outraged by these proposed changes, included in House Bill 80 and Senate Bill 29. Essentially, Cohen said, Parnell’s bills would overturn a fundamental provision of the cruise ship discharge law that won by popular vote.

Under current state law commercial passenger vessels are required not to discharge untreated sewage, treated sewage, graywater or other wastewaters in a manner that violates effluent limits or standards under state or federal law- including Alaska water quality standards governing pollution t the point of discharge except with specific documentation of those discharges.

Parnell’s legislation would allow cruise ships to have mixing zones for discharge of solid or liquid waste materials in public water bodies.

Cruise ships would no longer have to meet Alaska water quality standards at the point of discharge, Cohen said. They would be required only not to discharge untreated sewage, treated sewage, graywater or other wastewaters in a manner that violates applicable state or federal law governing disposal or discharge of solid or liquid waste material.

Cohen notes that the entire marketing campaign

Unified Command Juggles Drill Rig Assessment, Mitigation Strategies for Crab Fishery

By Fishermen's News Online

Officials with the Unified Command say they have developed mitigation strategies collaboratively with the Kodiak Crab Alliance Cooperative to reduce impacts to the fishery during the crab season, which normally lasts several days. The Unified Command said a marine coordinator will be onsite to coordinate the movement of response vessels, and updates will be provided every four hours to crab fishermen.

In addition a claims process has been established for any crab harvester losses that occur as a result of the drill rig Kulluk’s presence in Kodiak Island’s Kiliuda Bay during this year’s tanner crab fishing season.

To date there have been no reports of leakage of any fuel from the drill rig owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which grounded during stormy winter weather off a remote island near Kodiak Island on New Year’s Eve. The rig, which was employed for offshore drilling in the Arctic this past fall, was being towed from Dutch Harbor to Seattle for maintenance.

On Jan. 10, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued two separate notices of violation to Shell for Clean Air Act permits for the Kulluk drill rig and Discoverer drillship and fleet for oil and gas exploration in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.