Tazlina River Pipeline Crossing a Risky Marvel

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline hangs suspended across the Tazlina River, while swift, turbid water carries the breaking up ice pack downstream.

This is a dangerous and beautiful place. Its beauty is self-evident. The pure white noise of the river is all-encompassing. Steep, forested bluffs rise on all sides. Already, in early May, there are ducks playing on the river. Salmon will be here soon.

There is still river ice clinging to the banks. An ice bridge holds over the creek, where a sign indicates an oil spill containment site.

There is beauty in the design of the pipeline crossing, too. The suspension bridge is impressive. The zig-zag jumble of valves and pipe is dazzling. This skinny tube hanging over the river represents a fifth of our Nation's domestic oil supply. Wow.

The Tazlina TAPS crossing is a dangerous place because the pipeline is held up with wire over the river and a spill here would be a disaster. The Tazlina itself is a major salmon stream and the Copper River is only a few miles downstream. Subsistence fishwheels line the shores. Dipnetters are not far downstream. A Trajectory analysis done by Copper River Watershed Project and Ecotrust shows oil from here reaching the commercial fishery on the Copper River Flats in 39 hours. These ducks playing in the river here would be toast right away.

If a spill happened here, it would be uniquely difficult to clean up because things flow swiftly downhill and away. Once oil is in the river, there is no way the contingency plan to lay boom across the water would work. Boom works up to two knots, and the river must flow double that at least. Boom just doesn't work in swift, turbid waters, especially when they're choked with icebergs.

Response timing is another problem. The Contingency Plan is to respond to the (ineffective) containment sites in about six hours after detecting a spill. By that time, oil would already be well down the Copper, having just passed the beaches of Copper Center, sixteen miles downstream. We are challenging this containment gap in the Cascadia v. DEC adjudicatory hearing.

Even though both Pump Station 11 and the hub of activity that is Glennallen are right here at the Tazlina, there are a host of persistent maintenance problems that could cause a spill. In 2005 and 2006, erosion did damage to the Right-of-Way. There is also visible corrosion along many of the pipeline segments we saw here. On the very steep bluffs over the river, the pipeline looks like it is sliding out of its fittings. There was at least one dent that had punctured the side, exposing insulation underneath. Putty and wire patches covered some places.

What do the locals think of Alyeska spill response plan? "It won't happen," is the answer I got from one very well respected Ahtna leader, who lives near the confluence of the Tazlina and Copper. I had showed him Alyeska's proposed map for a spill containment site just outside his door. He patiently explained how the waters are too fast and silty for boom to work. Oil would bind with silt and turn into a semi-suspended mousse, impossible to effectively clean up. Besides, Alyeska doesn't have the dedicated responders and equipment needed to act quickly.

"I guarantee you," he said, pointing to Alyeska's diagram of boom and skimmers in the river, "they'll never do this."

We heard this message echoed over and over, including by Industry insiders. The company has been replacing workers with machines to the point now where there can be as little as a few people actually available on this stretch of pipeline at a given time. The people Alyeska lists as responders may be hunting and not available, or busy working on other essential tasks on some other part of the line.

The oil companies will say they need to shave costs, but give me a break. They are running this pipeline on pure profit and making a killing. It costs them only $120,000 to keep one full-time spill responder on staff for a year. At today's oil prices and pipeline throughput, that represents wellhead value of about one minute worth of the oil going through the line.

The bottom line for the Tazlina river crossing is not to ever let a spill escape into the river. After oil is in the water, it would be too late.