FINALE: The History of Valdez Alaska

 

Some history of: V A L D E Z

 Pronounced "val-deez"),  is one of the 3 towns within a natural fjord that reaches inland about 11 miles of the Prince William Sound, near the Gulf of Alaska. The other 2 cities along the Prince William Sound are Cordova and Whittier.  Valdez is the only that you can drive to, Cordova you must take a boat or a plane, Whittier does have a way to get there at certain times of the day, by driving thru the railroad tracks near Portage Glacier...which is otherwise occupied by trains.  Valdez is 305 miles East of Anchorage, and 364 south of Fairbanks. It is surrounded by breath taking snow-capped mountains, huge waterfalls and glaciers.  The population today, according to the 2010 census is 3976. 

The history of Valdez is traced back to the establishment of Fort Liscum, which operated from 1900-1923, was located three miles from Valdez Bay, on the south shore. This fort, was built to serve Two purposes:
 1) to maintain law and order in the growing gold-rush establishment; and
 2) to establish a military road and telegraph line to the Alaskan interior.
However, once that construction was completed and the military road finished, the need for Fort Liscum was no longer needed.  It was closed in 1923, and abandoned in 1929.  Today the Alyeska Trans-Alaska Pipline sits on that site.  The pipeline and the Exxon Valdez oil spill is a huge part of their history, I've explained more about those towards the bottom of this. Valdez became a 'town' in 1962, just 2 years before the earthquake. This year Valdez celebrated its "50th Anniversary" during their Gold Rush Days. It was fun.

 Earthquake of 1964

On Good Friday, March 27, 1964, the largest earthquake ever to hit North America struck Alaska. Magnitude of 9.2  (It was the second largest earthquake ever recorded, second only to Chile in 1960, which experienced a quake of 9.5 Magnitude.)  The epicenter of this Alaska quake was a mere 45 miles west of Valdez and 14 miles under the earth's crust.  Initial shocks lasting over ‘five’ minutes affected nearly all of the coastal communities of Alaska.  The massive shock waves ripped streets apart, damaged homes and destroyed buildings in town.  The piers were completely destroyed.  $15 million dollars in damage was reported. The earthquake triggered a huge landslide in Valdez, where millions of cubic yards of earth, (a section of land 4000 feet by 600 feet)  slid into Valdez Bay.  The large waves caused additional  damage, like tsunami's, thirty-one people in Valdez (mostly children) lost their lives in the dock area of Port Valdez.   The ground was permanently raised on some areas by as much as '30' feet, and lowered in other areas by 8 feet.   That total of fatalities of the Earthquake was 131 included people in Alaska, Oregon and California, and felt as far south as Louisiana, where a number of fishing boats were sunk.

Because of the massive devastation of Valdez, many residents were forced to live in roadhouses for several weeks. Help in the form of food and clothing from Fairbanks arrived almost immediately.   The ground under Valdez was determined to be unstable and it was decided to move the location   of the town of Valdez to a new town site, approximately 4 miles east, to where it is today.  It took from two to four  years for the new Valdez to become home for Valdez residents. Approximately 62 buildings and homes were moved from the old Valdez to the new town site. Homeowners paid a fee of $400 for lots.  Some of those buildings still remain today.

Since that tragic day in 1964, Valdez has grown.  For its efforts in rebuilding the new Valdez, in an amazingly short time, Valdez was voted an ‘All America City’ in 1965. Valdez was once again was named an All America City in 1982 for its diversified economic growth, in the oil industry, fishing, and tourism.

Some say that same earthquake devastation can never happen in Valdez again because of its new location. But every tremor brings the question of its possibility to the residents of Valdez. We experienced an earthquake while we were sitting in our fifth wheel on August 9th, at 8:43 a.m., it was a 4.9 earthquake, and it shook our camper for a good 10 seconds, lots of rattling and squeaks.... I watch the Alaskan government web site that tracks all earthquakes in the state of Alaska and you would be SHOCKED at how many there are!!!!  I've researched a 24 hr period and found that from Friday night at midnight to Saturday midnight August 25 there were 43 earthquakes in Alaska ranging from .45 to 3.65 magnitude.  There are times you can feel the jiggling, depending on where the earthquakes are centered and how deep they are.  What an experience.

The population of Old Town Valdez at the time of the earthquake was between 600 and 700 people.
Todays population according to the 2010 census is 3976.

Our own pictures... that we took at the 'Old' Valdez site….



remnants of one of the piers destroyed by the tsunami that followed the earthquake.

                   



Post Office dedicated in 1962.

                  

                                                               This is the foundation slab of where that Post Office was.                      

                                                                



Parts of old pipes and 'stuff' around on the ground near the remains of the piers.     

                  
    

  

 

 

This picture below, shows remains of one of the piers, with a ‘Tanker’ sitting in the bay.  Walking around the area, we found lots of items left behind, like a part of a furnace blower, rusty pipes, parts of plumbing….  It really was eery walking there.

         

 

  History of the Pipeline in Valdez.

Valdez History - Trans-Alaska Pipeline

In 1968, Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil (now Exxon) confirmed the presence of a huge oil field at Prudhoe Bay. Within a year, plans were under way for a pipeline.

Three and a half years of legal proceedings followed.  Construction began on November 16, 1973. The 360-mile distance from the Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay required a road to be built for transportation of equipment and materials. It was constructed in 1974. At the same time work was begun on pump stations, the pipeline work pad, and the Valdez Terminal.

The first pipe was laid in the Tonsina River, north of Valdez, on March 27, 1975. By the end of 1976, an additional 428 miles of pipeline were in place; miles which included Thompson Pass, a 2,678-foot high obstacle about 25 miles from Valdez.

The Pipeline employed 21,600 in August of 1975. By May of 1977, all 800 miles had been installed and tested. Oil entered the pipeline at Pump Station One, at Prudhoe Bay, on June 20, 1977, and reached Valdez on July 28. On August 1, 1977, the tanker "ARCO Juneau" sailed out of Valdez with the first load of North Slope crude oil. The historic billionth barrel reached Valdez on January 16, 1980. And, in November of 1997, the 12 billionth barrel of oil reached Valdez.

Valdez History - Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

On Good Friday, March 24, 1989, 25 years after the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground at Bligh Reef after leaving Valdez. The vessel spilled 10.8 million of its 53 million gallons of unrefined Alaskan crude oil into Prince William Sound, causing the largest oil spill in North American history.  The oil spill caused the deaths of 250,000 seabirds, nearly 3,000 Sea Otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles and up to 22 killer whales. No crude oil actually made it into the Port of Valdez, as Bligh Reef is about 25 miles south of the Port. However, winds and tides moved the floating crude oil further south into the Sound and onto beaches.   

DETAILS: THE PIPELINE ITSELF
 

The 48-inch diameter pipeline crosses three mountain ranges as well as forests, rivers, and plains. More than half the line is elevated in sections ranging from about 30 miles in length to the a few hundred feet. The remainder is buried underground.

The decision to elevate or bury the pipe depended primarily on soil conditions and the possible effects of the pipeline heat on the soil. Normal burial was used in stable soils and rocks, where thawing would not cause loss of soil support for the pipeline. Additionally, special burial techniques were used in some short sections for animal and highway crossings.

In places where melting permafrost might create soil stability conditions, the pipeline was insulated, jacketed, and installed above ground. Thawing around the aboveground supports in the most heat-sensitive areas was and is prevented by thermal devices that carry heat up through the pipes to radiators on top of the supports.

Aboveground sections were built in a flexible zigzag pattern in which longitudinal expansion or contraction of the pipe from heat or cold is converted into sideways movement. This also accommodates pipe motion induced by earthquake.

At more than 800 river and stream crossings, the pipe bridges the waterway or is buried beneath it. And, at 151 points along the line, valves are installed to sop oil flow, if necessary. In particular, valves are located near key stream crossings, population areas, and major uphill sections of the pipeline.

Throughout much of the life of the pipeline, crude oil was moved down the line by a series of ten operating pump stations. An additional facility provided oil control capability and could have become a pump station if expansion by the system had been required. A twelfth station site was also available. Today only six of the original ten pump stations are being used to move oil through the line.(Production of oil on the North Slope has been declining because of the age of the oil fields, thereby reducing the amount of throughput of oil in the line, and thus requiring fewer pump stations.)

The heart of each station is the main pump building that houses gas-turbine-driven mainline pumps. Most stations have three pumps, each of which can move 22,000 gallons of oil each minute, or up to 754,000 barrels a day (one barrel equals 42 gallons).

THE VALDEZ TERMINAL

Oil from the pipeline is first stored, then loaded aboard tankers at the terminal in Valdez. Located across the bay from the city, this 1,000-acre site is built on the northernmost ice-free port in the United States, and offers a deep-water channel with a minimum width at the entrance of about 3,000 feet.

There are 18 crude oil storage tanks at the Terminal—4 in the West Tank Farm, and 14 in the East Tank Farm. The tanks are 250 feet in diameter, 62 feet and 3 inches high, and can hold 510,000 barrels each, for a total capacity of 9.18 million barrels. For safety, each tank is surrounded by a concrete dike, which can hold 110% of the oil in the tanks.

The nerve center of the 800-mile-long pipeline system is the Operations Control Center at the Valdez Terminal. The controllers at the center can start or stop the entire pipeline, or initiate or terminate functions at any part of the line. Other shore facilities include a vapor recovery system, a ballast water treatment plant, power plant, warehouses, and shop buildings, meters, and meter-proving equipment, water treatment and sewage systems, oil spill contingency equipment, and fire-fighting systems.

Tankers arrive almost daily at Valdez to carry crude oil from the pipeline terminal to refineries.

I hope you now know a little more about this little place called Valdez, that we called ‘HOME” for six Weeks.