Project Information

Title: Clean Water Act Assessment of Beaches with Lingering Oil 23220502

Project Year and Number: 2023: 23220502

Other Fiscal Years and Numbers for this Project: 2024: 24220502

Principal Investigator (PI): Terri Lomax (Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation)

Managing Agency: ADEC

Assisting Personnel: None

Research Location:

Restoration Category: General Restoration

Injured Resources Addressed: Not Specified

Abstract:

In 1990, DEC classified impacted beaches in the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill impact zone as impaired for petroleum exceedances under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Today, new information exists that would allow for a re-evaluation of the condition of those impacted beaches. This project would allow DEC to evaluate the beaches and determine if the impairments still exist under the CWA. DEC will use available data to develop a lingering oil listing methodology with indices of impairment to evaluate the status of the impacted beaches.

The impaired beaches are the only waters currently designated by the State through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as impaired from the Exxon Valdez spill. Initially, these beaches were listed as Category 5 (impaired waters) in accordance with section 303(d) of the CWA. In 1996, the beaches were reclassified off the 303(d) list as Category 4b (impaired waters with a recovery plan) because of the restoration efforts identified in the 1994 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Plan (Restoration Plan).

Recent studies indicate that key injured resources are no longer negatively affected by the lingering oil that remains in the substrate of some beaches. In 2015, passive samplers were deployed in the intertidal zone of one of the most contaminated beaches; no Exxon Valdez oil was detected leaching into the marine water. The study concludes that remaining lingering oil (still largely in an un-weathered state) remains sequestered in the subsurface and is not biologically available. The population of target species, such as harlequin ducks and sea otters, between oiled and unoiled sites are now similar, indicating recovery from long-term effects of the spill. The recovery of injured resources and sequestered oil may justify the reclassification of impairment status of some or all of the beaches.

This project was approved for the FY22-FY26 funding cycle. This project began in FY23.


Proposal: View (494 KB)

Reports:
FY23 Q1 Report: View (342 KB)
FY23 Q2 Report: View (374 KB)
FY23 Q3 Report: View (386 KB)
FY23 Q4 Report: View (347 KB)

Publications from this Project: None Available

Resolutions: