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Senate Transportation Committee advances resolution on NOAA weather buoy outages affecting Prince William Sound
Summary
The Alaska Senate Transportation Committee moved a substitute for Senate Joint Resolution 12 out of committee without objection, citing multi-year outages of NOAA weather buoys statewide and noting the Seal Rock buoy’s role in safe navigation of oil tankers from Valdez.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Senate Transportation Committee on March 25 advanced a committee substitute for Senate Joint Resolution 12, which addresses recurring outages to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather buoys around the state and singles out the Seal Rock buoy in Prince William Sound as essential to the safe navigation of oil tankers from Valdez.
The resolution was presented on behalf of sponsor Sen. Forrest Dunbar by Halen Benken, staff to Dunbar. “For the record, my name is Halen Benken, staff to Senator Dunbar,” Benken said. He told the committee the resolution “discusses the outages that have been increasingly occurring over the last five years to NOAA weather buoys around the state, taking particular note of the Seal Rock buoy in Prince William Sound that is essential for the safe navigation of oil tankers from Valdez.”
Benken noted the matter is particularly important to Prince William Sound and to coastal communities across Alaska. Committee members had no questions and no members of the public offered testimony during the March 25 meeting; the committee previously heard the resolution on March 20, when invited testimony was taken.
A committee member moved to send the committee substitute (version 34LS0449\H) of SJR 12 from committee with individual recommendations and an attached fiscal note. There was no objection and the substitute was moved from committee. The motion record did not show a second or a roll-call tally; the chair instructed members to remain after adjournment to sign the committee report.
The committee did not adopt additional directions for staff during the meeting. The resolution’s fiscal note is attached to the committee action; the text presented and the substitute version number were recorded in committee but the meeting did not specify any floor calendar date for further action or the contents of the fiscal note.
The committee convened at 1:38 p.m. and adjourned at 1:41 p.m.; the agenda contained a single item: SJR 12. The resolution asks the Legislature to express concern about NOAA buoy outages and highlights operational impacts to maritime navigation; it does not itself direct state executive action or appropriate funds. Further action or responses by NOAA or federal agencies were not described during the committee meeting.
