2009 Mount Redoubt Eruptive Activity - Renewed Concerns Over The Drift River Terminal Facility

Renewed Concerns Over The Drift River Terminal Facility

The 2009 eruptions of Mount Redoubt renewed concerns over the safety of a nearby tank farm which holds crude oil, known as the Drift River Terminal Facility. During the earlier, 1989-90 eruptions of Redoubt, the facility was inundated and damaged by lahars. Dikes built after the 89/90 activity protected the tanks, although an aircraft hangar and runway were flooded and damaged by the flooding and related debris. In late March the US Coast Guard decided to move the millions of gallons located at the facility to prevent an ecological disaster. The plan called for then refilling the tanks with "harmless" ballast water to prevent them from being dislodged by flooding.

However, on April 5, the Coast Guard stated that filling the empty tanks with ballast water was not possible, because it would create a hazardous waste that the neither the facility nor the Coast Guard was prepared to deal with afterward. Instead, the oil was removed and the empty tanks remained vulnerable to damage from further flooding. In the meantime, oil production in Cook Inlet was suspended, because the tank farms were out of commission while Mount Redoubt remained in an eruptive state.

When the eruptions subsided, the tanks were undamaged and the facility was cleared of debris and subsequently reopened.