The Drift River Terminal Facility, also known as the Drift River Oil Terminal, is a tank farm which holds crude oil before it is loaded onto oil tankers and transported to refineries. It is located in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

along

Cook Inlet Cook Inlet ( tfn, Tikahtnu; Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its so ...

, at the terminus of the Drift River, an historic

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

of nearby volcanic

Mount Redoubt Redoubt Volcano, or Mount Redoubt ( Dena'ina: ''Bentuggezh K’enulgheli''), is an active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of the U.S. state of Alaska. Located at the head of the Chigmit Mountains subrange in Lake Clark N ...

. The facility is owned and operated by Cook Inlet Pipeline Company, a Houston-based corporation owned by Hilcorp. Oil is collected into the tanks via the submerged Cook Inlet Pipeline, which connects the tank farm to the oil fields on the west side of Cook Inlet. Oil tankers load crude from the tanks via a pump station located approximately one mile offshore, known as the Christy Lee Platform. The tank farm's location has been controversial since the 1989/1990 eruption of

, when the facility was flooded by

lahars A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. Lahars are extremel ...

. Concerns were renewed during the 2009 eruptions of Redoubt. Dikes built after the 89/90 eruptions have kept the 2009 flooding away from the tanks, but an adjacent aircraft hangar and runway were damaged. A major eruption of Redoubt on April 4, 2009 and subsequent flash floods damaged a generator facility and disrupted plans to remove the remaining crude oil from the facility and replace it with

ballast water Ballast is used in ships to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the hull. Insufficiently ballasted boats tend to tip or heel excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the vessel capsizing. If a sailing vessel needs to voy ...

to stabilize the tanks and protect them from being dislodged during any future flooding. While the facility was again surrounded by lahars, the tank farm itself was not flooded and workers at the facility were not injured. The workers on site were evacuated to a "safe room" complete with food and sleeping quarters, as well as

bathroom A bathroom or washroom is a room, typically in a home or other residential building, that contains either a bathtub or a shower (or both). The inclusion of a wash basin is common. In some parts of the world e.g. India, a toilet is typically ...

s and entertainment facilities to wait out the flooding. On April 5, the Coast Guard determined that the tanks could not be refilled with ballast water after the oil was removed, as the water would then become a hazardous waste that the facility would not be able to dispose of properly. Instead, the oil will simply be removed and sent to refineries, with damage to the tanks from further flooding still possible. The Coast Guard will coordinate the oil removal with the

Alaska Volcano Observatory The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) is a joint program of the United States Geological Survey, the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADGGS). AVO ...

and proceed when it is safe to do so.

References

External links

Chevron Corporation official sitePacific Energy Resources websiteAlaska Division of Environmental ConservationAlaska Volcano Observatory Mount Redoubt activity page
{{Coord, 60, 36, 09, N, 152, 10, 35, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska Oil terminals Oil infrastructure in Alaska Chevron Corporation