End of an era for experimental oil spill sites

摘要

Risks associated with oil transport are well recognized, including those associated with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which carries crude oil about 800 miles overland from Alaska's North Slope to the Port of Valdez. During pipeline's construction in the1970s, a number of studies examined how crude oil spills would affect Alaska ecosystems. One of these took place in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed, about 32 milds northeast of Fairbanks. There, in 1976, researchers with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory created two experimental oil spills to mimic a rupture in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Oil at pipeline temperature was applied in winter (February) and one summer (July). To date, no amendments or cleanup efforts have beenapplied to the site.