In 2009, the Council marked the Twentieth Anniversary of the spill. This landmark anniversary included exhibits, coordination with aquariums, museums, zoos and other organizations, public meetings and presentations by EVOS scientists, a public event which attracted more than 1,200 participants and the issuance of a short film and a retrospective Annual Report. Local, national and international media submitted hundreds of information and interview requests to the Council and ARLIS offices.

The Anniversary also brought the Council together to discuss the future of their restoration activities and how best to manage the diminishing funds. During this process, the Council acknowledged that the remaining joint trust funds are limited and that is it becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between spill impacts and other effects in measuring recovery. Recognizing this, they began to work toward a strategic and organized transition to a more modest restoration program which would focus the remaining funds on a few specific programs and reduce administrative costs.

Under this approach, the Council would expend funds with an emphasis on producing information to support the future management and natural restoration of the injured species and, thus, the human services that depend upon them. In addition, the information produced by such activities can enable management consistent with long-term restoration. To make restoration funds available to support this effort, the Council dramatically reduced its administrative budget, staffing and office space during 2009- 2011.

In 2010, to further this effort, the Council issued a Notice of Intent summarizing its proposals and subsequently held public meetings in six spill-area communities to encourage public comment. Throughout this deliberative process, the Council and its staff consulted with scientists, Trustee Agency Liaisons, legal counsel, the Council's Public Advisory Committee, and reviewed numerous public comments received through the public meetings and those submitted directly to the Council. The public, the Public Advisory Committee and the Council's scientific advisors reviewed these proposals for a more modest program and provided strong support for the effort. As a result of these discussions, the Council narrowed and refined the scope of their monitoring efforts to five defined restoration categories: herring, lingering oil, long-term monitoring of marine conditions and injured resources, harbor protection, marine restoration, lessons learned/outreach, and habitat acquisition and protection.

In the early spring of 2011, the Council issued an Invitation requesting projects in the following focus areas: a long-term herring program; a long-term program for the monitoring of marine conditions and injured natural resources; projects in harbor protection, marine restoration and lingering oil. Many excellent proposals were submitted in response to the Invitation, including collaborations among local and other entities working together in several areas, including establishing comprehensive long-term herring and monitoring programs.

In the fall of 2011, the Council approved projects in these focus areas, including the long-term Herring and monitoring programs. Their approval marks the beginning of a new stage for the Council which is defined by reduced administrative costs, and a focus on supporting the focus areas and projects approved from the FFY'12 Invitation with annual Council and the Public Advisory Committee meetings to review work plans and to approve the future year's proposed funding.

EVOSTC seeks public comment on proposed focus areas for remaining restoration funds, concurrent with a NEPA update of its 1994 Restoration Plan.

ANCHORAGE, January 14, 2010 — The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (Council) announces the posting of a Notice of Intent (NOI) and the opening of a public comment period to supplement the Council’s existing Environmental Impact Statement. The public comment period will end on April 1, 2010 and a series of public meetings will be held in six communities during this time (please see below for dates and times).

The Council, recognizing that the restoration funds remaining from the Exxon Valdez settlement continue to diminish, seeks to narrow and refine the scope of the Council’s restoration efforts and to enable a more discrete and efficient funding mechanism by which to direct these remaining funds. In the NOI, the Council proposes to focus their restoration efforts to five defined restoration categories: herring; lingering oil; long-term monitoring of marine conditions; harbor protection and marine restoration; and habitat acquisition and protection.

These Council efforts and deliberations dovetail with the need for the Council to complete a National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) update of its original 1994 Restoration Plan. Thus, in conjunction with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Council has posted a Notice of Intent to prepare a supplement to the existing environmental impact statement (SEIS) on the Council’s restoration efforts. A copy of the NOI can be obtained from the EVOSTC office and on its website, www.evostc.state.ak.us.

The Council would like to encourage public comment which may be submitted in several ways:

• Written comments may be submitted by mail to: Laurel Jennings, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, 441 West 5th Avenue, Suite 500, Anchorage, AK 99501 or via email to dfg.evos.nepacomments@alaska.gov
• Verbal comments may be submitted by calling 888-654-3867.
• Written or verbal comments may be submitted at any of the following public meetings:
• February 16, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Alaska Islands and Oceans Visitor Center, 95 Sterling Highway, Homer, AK 99603.
• February 17, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Dena'ina Civic & Convention Center, 600 West Seventh Avenue, Anchorage, AK 99501.
• February 18, 2010 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Cordova Public Library, 622 First Street, Cordova, AK 99574.
• March 16, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the K.M. Rae Building, 125 Third Avenue, Seward, AK 99664.
• March 17, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Valdez Civic Center, 110 Clifton Drive, Valdez, AK 99686.
• March 18, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Kodiak Refuge Visitor Center, 402 Center Street, Kodiak AK 99615.

For more information about the scoping process, please contact the EVOSTC office and details will be provided. Updates or changes to the meeting times or dates, due to weather or other factors, can be found at http://www.evostc.state.ak.us.

Please note that for the NEPA public scoping process, comments must be received by April 1, 2010, in order to be incorporated into the official scoping record. Comments received after April 1 will still be considered by the Council in the development of the SEIS, but will not be a part of the scoping record

Once this NEPA scoping process is complete, the Draft SEIS will be developed and released for public comment in Spring 2010. This second public comment period will be for 45 days. Further opportunities for public comment are provided through public review and comment on documents contained in the Administrative Record, as well as on the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement. If you would like to receive electronic notices of these future public involvement events, please send your e-mail address to dfg.evos.nepacomments@alaska.gov, along with a message that you would like to be added to the mailing list.

About the Council

In 1992, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council was formed by six trustees, three State of Alaska trustees and three federal trustees, to oversee restoration of the natural resources and ecosystem damaged by the 1989 oil spill. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council was funded by settlement of civil claims brought against Exxon Companies by the State of Alaska and the United States.

March 24, 2009 marks the 20^th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.  Communities across the spill affected area and elsewhere in Alaska are planning events.  

If you are interested in having a Trustee Council member, Principal Investigator (PI) or other restoration-related specialist come and speak at your community event in Alaska, please send an email or letter to EVOSTC, attention Lynette Ortolano.  Please include in your request:  the nature of the event; dates and times; name(s) of the individuals requested or specialty type; and the purpose of the presentation and how it is related to the EVOSTC Restoration Program (information can be found at:  www.evostc.state.ak.us)

Please contact the EVOSTC Restoration Office if you have any questions.  Collaborative requests that leverage funds are encouraged.  Requests received after Dec. 15th, will be considered for remaining funding.

Email:  dfg.evos.restoration@alaska.gov

Address:  441 W 5^th Ave, Suite 500, Anchorage, AK  99501.

Phone:  (907) 278-8012

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC) welcomes Elise Hsieh as interim Executive Director and Jen Schorr as interim Deputy Executive Director.

Elise Hsieh moved to Alaska in 1978.  She left to attend college and law school, and returned in 1994.  After working as a judicial law clerk and in private practice, Elise became an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska Department of Law, concentrating on environmental law for the last twelve years.  In that capacity, Elise became a legal advisor to the EVOSTC on a broad range of topics. 

Jen Schorr moved to Alaska in March 2008 and came to the EVOSTC through her work as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska Department of Law, in the Environmental Section.  As an Associate at Perkins Coie LLP (Seattle) from 2005-2008, Jen practiced environmental and natural resources law.  Prior to earning her JD, she earned a Master of Marine Affairs from the University of Washington in 1998, where her thesis was on integrating Alaskan traditional ecological knowledge and science for co-management of marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The Trustee Council wishes to thank Michael Baffrey for his service as Executive Director of the Council for the past two and a half years and also thank the Department of Interior for loaning his position for this duty.

Ms. Hsieh and Ms. Schorr will serve in this interim capacity while recruitment for a new Executive Director is conducted.  The Trustee Council wishes to assure the public that ongoing initiatives are continuing under the Settlement Agreement and Restoration Plan adopted as a result of the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

The Herring Working Group met again in Cordova last week at the Masonic Hall to continue work crafting an integrated program for herring restoration in Prince William Sound.  Chartered by the EVOS Trustee Council, this working group includes people from the scientific and local community.  They will be meeting again in Cordova the first week of August. 

Their objectives are to develop a collaboration between science and impacted communities; determine the reasons for the lack of recovery of the PWS herring population; determine the social, economic and ecological feasibility of intervention; monitor and evaluate the success of restoration efforts; improve accuracy of population predictions with more reliable information; in order to meet the goal of restoring the herring population in PWS to a recovered status.    

Working group members are: 

• Ross Mullins, Commercial fisherman, Cordova
• Scott Pegau:  Executive Director, OSRI, Cordova.
• Rob Campbell:  Researcher, PWSSC, Cordova.
• Vince Patrick:  University of Maryland mathematician and modeling expert, and Cordova resident.
• Evelyn Brown:  Flying Fish Limited consultancy, herring modeling expert involved with restoration since the spill.
• Jeep Rice:  PWS herring authority, NOAA.  Involved with herring restoration since the spill.
• Paul Hershberger:  runs the Marrowstone Field Station for the USGS and is at the forefront of herring disease research.
• Doug Hay:  Near Shore Consulting, a leading international herring enhancement expert.
• Gary Fandrei:  Executive Director, Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association and EVOSTC Public Advisory Committee member.
• Representative from ADF&G (Steve Moffitt participated last week).
• Catherine Boerner is the Restoration Specialist leading the effort for the EVOSTC Restoration Office.

  All EVOSTC related meetings are open to the public in person or by phone,

  with scheduled time for public participation.