Professional Responsibility

Safety

As of last month, the men and women of Alaska Tanker Company (ATC) have completed more than six calendar years and twelve million man-hours without a Lost Time Injury (LTI).

“We have not had a single drop of crude oil spilled to sea in over five years,”says CEO Anil Mathur. Since its inception in 1999, the company has transported well more than a billion barrels of crude oil out of Valdez, Alaska.

According to ATC, no other tanker company in the world has achieved the company’s current safety and environmental performance record. Mathur notes that the ATC staff makes a conscious and voluntary effort to work safely.

“The quality and thought that ATC employees put into their work that produces these extraordinary results is truly discretionary,” says Mathur. “I call this treasure our safety culture.”

Along with the hard work of the ATC employees, ship and shore, Mathur attributes the company’s safety performance to the union leadership (SIU and MEBA), the company’s contractors, the client (BP Alaska), the owners and external stakeholders and the company’s regulators.

“Meaningful and lasting results at this level require a supportive environment,” he says. “I am very grateful to each of these entities.”

Kudos, Alaska Tanker Company.

Stewardship

Another company to be commended is the recipient of the first annual “Marine Environmental Business of the Year” award, presented by the Port of Seattle and the Seattle Propeller Club. Nominations were accepted for Seattle maritime companies that had made efforts toward incorporating environmentally sustainable practices and environmental stewardship.

The winner of this year’s award, presented at the Maritime Day luncheon on May 2, is Westwood Shipping. A wholly owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Company, Westwood has a fleet of four purpose-built container/bulk vessels with three new vessels currently under development.

Westwood’s vessels, built in 2002 and 2003, have Det Norske Veritas “Clean Class” certification. The ships comply with IMO code for low NOx emissions, and are having fuel oil homogenizers installed to help reduce particulate matter. The fleet uses low sulfur fuels within the Pacific Northwest and Asia regions.
Westwood whips also have IMO-approved incinerators for the disposal of sludge and garbage, and the fuel tanks are located inboard and protected by a double hull to minimize the possibility of a breach in the event of an accident. A flow through ballast system allows the vessels to exchange ballast water safely at sea to reduce the possibility of invasive species issues. Congratulations, Westwood.

Accountability

Lawyers for Captain John Cota, pilot of the Cosco Busan, claim that the Coast Guard shares responsibility for the accident that caused a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay last fall, according to a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Cota faces criminal negligence charges as a result of the accident, but Cota’s lawyers have raised questions about the conduct of the Coast Guard, including an allegation that the Coast Guard’s vessel traffic personnel did not warn the pilot clearly that he was about to crash into the bridge.

According to his attorney, Cota is “a scapegoat”. His attorneys claim the responsibility for the crash and the subsequent oil spill should be shared by the captain and officers of the Cosco Busan and the Coast Guard.

According to Cota’s testimony before the NTSB on November 16th, 2007, after boarding the ship, Cota met with the Captain, and “…we looked out the window and we said this is too foggy, you know, we’re not going anywhere. We’ll just wait and see how things develop.” Cota further testifies to his inability to understand how the electronic navigation aids on bridge worked, his difficulty in communicating with the captain and his confusion as to his position relative to the channel and the bridge.

“… somewhere along this as we’re transversing [sic] this section, traffic called and said we have your heading as 235, what is your intention? And I’m standing at the radar, and the radar and the electronic chart are right next to each other, and I had the radio in my hand. I said my heading flasher is on 280.”
Cota continues: “When I leave the Bar Channel generally, I steer towards the tower or somewhere between 250 and 260, depending on the current. So I mean that really stunned me. I was really confused by that. I couldn’t understand how they could have me at 235 and I had me at 280.” And yet, Cota blames the Coast Guard for not warning him of the imminent allision.

We feel comfortable with the facts as they stand. Pilot error seems to be the cause of the accident, and Cota’s attorney seems to agree:

“Until he saw the bridge tower at the last moment, he didn’t know where he was,” the attorney said.

Give it up, Captain.

For more on this and other recent allisions, see Captain John Denham’s piece on page 30 of this issue.

Chris Philips, Managing Editor
chris@pacmar.com