Shep­ard Pt. is the pro­posed site of a deep­wa­ter port and oil spill response facil­ity. This project, spear­headed by the Native Vil­lage of Eyak com­pany, is the 4.5 mile exten­sion of Orca Road and the build­ing of the port and facil­ity, north of Cor­dova. It is to be funded by Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trust funds, Fed­eral High­way Aid funds, and Alyeska Set­tle­ment Fund, accord­ing to the Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing between the U.S. Dept. of Trans­porta­tion, Fed­eral High­way Admin­is­tra­tion, Fed­eral Land High­way Divi­sion, and Alaska Dept. of Trans­porta­tion and Pub­lic Facilities.

There are other, viable, less expen­sive, less envi­ron­men­tally dam­ag­ing options to Shep­ard Point.

The orig­i­nally quoted 30.5 mil­lion dol­lar Shep­ard Pt. project (the price has gone up) has been largely opposed by locals and fish­er­men, due to the spend­ing of pub­lic money on a pri­vate project, avalanche dan­ger, and slower response time, one of the facts pointed out in a res­o­lu­tion in oppo­si­tion to the project by the Cor­dova Dis­trict Fish­er­men United.  The fact that a func­tional, cur­rent spill response facil­ity already exists also causes oppo­si­tion.   Shep­ard Point has huge and obvi­ous avalanche dan­ger, which could eas­ily  block the Oil Pol­lu­tion Act of 1990 require­ment of the abil­ity of site gates being opened, snow cleared, and equip­ment con­nexes being open within two hours of a spill call­out, any­time.  Also, the dan­ger to humans from these avalanches along the pro­posed road­way (the beach­line) and Shep­ard Pt. itself is bla­tant and terrible.

One of the proponent’s main pub­lic rea­sons for the build­ing of the site is the claim that the deep draft ves­sels required for spill response can’t make it to Cordova.

In the final Envi­ron­men­tal Impact State­ment on the project, the Ship Escort /Response Ves­sel Sys­tem, or SERVS, states that they have no prob­lem access­ing the cur­rent facil­ity in Cor­dova with their 22′ draft tugs.  These 22′ draft tugs are the deep­est draft ves­sels that would be used in spill response out of Cor­dova, accord­ing to a SERVS spokesman quoted in the EIS.  The Alaska Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Con­ser­va­tion doesn’t envi­sion larger, deeper ves­sels being used in response out of Cordova.

Car­bon Moun­tain is east of Cor­dova and roughly 65 miles as the crow flies from Shep­ard Point.  It’s at the head­wa­ters of Con­troller Bay, Bering River, Gandil River, and other pro­duc­tive salmon spawning/commercial fish­ing zones.  Under­neath Car­bon Moun­tain and the head of Bering River are large coal deposits. A deep­wa­ter port at Shep­ard Pt. with adjoin­ing roads to Car­bon Moun­tain would allow access to ship out the coal extracted and makes the salmon habi­tat of the Bering River/Controller Bay area sus­cep­ti­ble to the effects and by-products of min­ing and other resource extrac­tion.   The Shep­ard Point deep­wa­ter port and oil spill response facil­ity is a miss­ing link to mine the Car­bon Moun­tain area.  Let­ters and doc­u­ments from coal min­ing com­pa­nies and miner’s orga­ni­za­tions show sup­port of Native Vil­lage of Eyak’s Shep­ard Pt. project in obvi­ous rela­tion to Car­bon Moun­tain mining.

The switch of the oil spill response site to Shep­ard Point would be harm­ful to spill response time and com­mer­cial fish­ing of Cor­dova, Prince William Sound, and the Cop­per River Flats.  The con­cur­rent Car­bon Moun­tain coal and resource extrac­tion would also jeop­ar­dize the cash flow of the renew­able resource of salmon that if left alone, swim back every year to be caught by Cop­per River fish­er­men.   Check out Eyak Action Coali­tion on Face­book to sign on to the peti­tion in oppo­si­tion to the Shep­ard Point project.

For More infor­ma­tion regard­ing Shepard’s Point, please check these sites out when you have a chance:

• Cor­dova Dis­trict Fish­er­men United’s res­o­lu­tion in oppo­si­tion of the relo­ca­tion of the oil spill response facil­ity to Shep­ard Point.

• Google Earth ‘Shep­ard Pt. AK’ and see the sev­eral giant avalanche chutes between Cor­dova and Shep­ard Pt. The road would be right under the chutes. The oil spill response site would be right near the chutes at Shep­ard Pt. Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself.