Pacific Oil Spill Task Force to Meet in Tacoma

The Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force will hold its 2002 annual meeting in Tacoma on July 23. The meeting will last from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Sheraton Tacoma Hotel, 1320 Broadway Plaza, and is open to the news media and the public. The task force was formed in 1989 to coordinate oil-spill prevention and response policies that cover some 55,826 miles of coastline, from the Beaufort Sea to the Baja Peninsula, plus the Hawaiian islands. The theme for this year's meeting, Doing It Right: Balancing Regulatory and Non-Regulatory Approaches, will focus on the roles that government regulators and private industry play in reducing the number and severity of oil spills. Michele Brown, commissioner of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation, will be the keynote speaker. There also will be a panel presentation addressing the meeting's theme. The speakers will include Bruce Wishart from People for Puget Sound; Mike Ziccardi, program coordinator for California's Oiled-Wildlife Care Network; Jack Buono, vice president of operations for SeaRiver Maritime Incorporated; and Captain Dave Westerholm, chief of response at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C. The task force also will hear the final recommendations from a work group that examined regional oil-spill risks associated with offshore traffic from Alaska to California. And updates will be provided on the oil-spill program and policy developments in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. Five 2002 Legacy Awards will be presented in honor of outstanding oil-spill prevention, preparedness and response efforts. The award-winners are: Kim Beasley, general manager of the Clean Islands Council in Honolulu, Hawaii. Jerry McMahon, executive director of American Waterways Operators in the Pacific Region. Stephen Ricks, president of Clean Bay Inc. in Concord, Cal. SeaRiver Maritime Inc. of Houston, Texas. Turn Point Standard of Care Development Team, which includes the Canadian Coast Guard's Marine Programs, the British Columbia Coast Pilots and the U.S. Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Services of Puget Sound. The Washington Department of Ecology also will present its ECOPRO award to the Alaska Tanker Company LLC for exceeding the state's "best achievable protection" standards for oil tankers. Members of the Pacific States/British Columbia Oil Spill Task Force are the directors of the key spill-prevention and response agencies in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii.