State officials say they still cannot trace an oily sheen observed in western Cook Inlet on Monday to a nearby oil platform. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said Wednesday that Hilcorp Alaska, which owns the so-called Spark Platform will continue flying over the area to look for sheen.
The department says a pilot reported seeing a mileslong sheen in north Trading Bay, about 30 miles northwest of Kenai. State officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and Hilcorp responded to the area, but say they didn’t see any sheen Tuesday or Wednesday.
The state says Hilcorp investigated the platform Tuesday and Wednesday and did not find evidence of an oil spill, or a possible source of the sheen. The platform was installed in the 1960s, decommissioned in the early 1990s and plugged in 2009.
The state says Trading Bay is home to all five species of salmon, as well as endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, sea and river otters, harbor seals, sea lions and a handful of migratory birds and waterfowl.
The sheen prompted outcry from environmental groups, including the Homer-based nonprofit Cook Inletkeeper. In a press release, the group says the sheen demonstrates the risks of leaving aging oil and gas structure in Alaska waters indefinitely.
“This is one more reminder of why having oil and gas in our backyard is a liability to the marine ecosystems we rely on for our livelihoods and wellbeing,” Clean Water Lead Satchel Pondolfino said in the statement. “Enough is enough; we have to start holding operators accountable for dismantling retired infrastructure.”
The state says Hilcorp plans to inspect and test other pipes or hoses going into and out of the area, and to repressurize lines that were shut in.The state says that’s a common practice in oil spill responses. Alaska Response Corporation, an oil spill removal organization, deployed its cleanup ship Endeavor to the site yesterday and remains in the area for when the lines are repressurized.
