OSRI Advisory Board Meeting Monday, February 9, 2015

K’enakatnu Boardroom, 2nd floor Dena’ina Center, Anchorage, AK.

C all to Order - Roll call and Introductions 8:40am - Present: Doug Helton, Philip Johnson, Diane Durham,

Rick Bernhardt, Samantha Carroll, Jeanette Alas,

Bill Lindow, Andres Morales, David Totemoff Sr.,

Susan Saupe,Joe Banta, Charles Meacham

Teleconference: Angela Totemoff, Andy Craig

Staff: Katrina Hoffman- Executive Director Scott Pegau – Research Program Manager

Approval of Agenda: Agenda approved

Public Comments: None

Approval of Minutes from October 10, 2014Lindow: Motion to approve minutesJohnson: Second Passes unanimously

Chair’s ReportsHelton: Alaska is in the news a lot lately with ANWAR and the Pipeline spill resulting

in oil under a frozen river in Montana. Scott’s contribution to EPPR’s Arctic Council

document, re: oil in snoArctic Shield and NOAAs work on science of dispersants in Arctic

waters, has been valuable.

Executive Director’s Report

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Hoffman: A new Governor was elected to the AK Foundation of Natives. Two names were recommended to the Governor’s staff, for two Alaska Native Seats: Angela Totemoff and David Totemoff. David’s transition will leave an Oil & Gas seat vacant. Please think about individuals who may be able to contribute to the OSRI board and suggest such names to us.

Arctic Encounter SymposiumJIPPWSSC – OSRI board collaboration: financial relationship—PWSSC board has fiduciary responsibility for OSRI reserve and how it’s invested. PWSSC board members are here today so they and OSRI folks can get to know each other as we engage in the working group process to revise the PWSSC-OSRI investment policy.

Research Program Manager update (see PPT slide deck)Scott Pegau gave the RPM update.

Sue Saupe: Technology RFP is targeted towards school-aged kids; you will miss a certain type of outreach and a sector of society. Needs to be re-tooled and re-offered in the future to engage other non-school aged members of the public. Scott: would like to send to Sue for review before the next RFP to see if he has her intent. Joe Banta: He would like to see us increase the broader public awareness of the Outreach education. What happens if there is a spill in your back yard? Is the general public familiar with the terms and methodology of oil clean up? Need to increase. He is not interested in moving funding in this year but broadly in the next go round

NPRB is developing an Arctic ecosystem study. A couple of things for OSRI to consider. Do we want to be a partner? Atuetan Island. Then a decision will need to made: do we want to use our existing commitment to NPRB to support their general program, or do we want to extend those funds to the Arctic and Aleutian? UAF – Oil Spill Center of excellence. We are going to wait on submitting proposals. Last year, NSF would provide the administration funds and the Partners would pay for the work. However, the partners could not pick which project they wanted to see completed. UAF did the selection. Scott feels it would be a better product if the partners were involved in the selection. Discussion on oil and Ice remote sensing project

Unbiased education material to help the public understand what oil spill response is. The agencies provide information that everyone is comfortable with.

Rick B.: broaden outreach RFP so materials appeal to wider audiences.

Blowout under ice:

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Bill Lindow & Phil Johnson are very interested in blowout under ice scenarios

Joe Banta: Would like more information—technical write-ups on oil removal & oil under ice / blowout under ice scenarios, so we can better understand them.

Sue: Build in lessons learned from first X prize—there were flaws in how they selected the winner; if you string together existing technologies, they may work, but that’s not how we grow. Do you have say in the guidelines for judging oil removal challenges to ensure new ways to approach solutions to the problem?

David: re: blowout under ice – North Star Island is the only one that has a pipeline under the seabed. Ice goes right down to the bottom, 200-300 ft. offshore. There’s not enough water to get a boat there to corral it; ice will move as wind pushes it. North Star has 2-3 miles of pipeline under the seabed.

Scott: We were thinking about this in terms of development of the Chukchi. Doesn’t ENI now have an offshore rig?

Helton: Yes, and pipelines for crude oil & refined products.

David: North Star incident is still one to remember.

Helton: A recent train accident in the Mid-West resulted in fuel being released into a frozen river. Scott: The work we do is relevant to other places, even though our focus is marine.

Rick B.: Gives update on upcoming AOSTS meeting—focus on marine response; envisioning a Chukchi scenario. Mar 31-Apr 1 in Fairbanks. 225 participants expected.

Scott will put together some more technical write ups for the board.

OSRI Financial Information

Joe Banta: We had a finance committee meeting recently: Chuck, Katrina, Scott, Penny, Joe. Our deposit is lower than anticipated.

Chuck: My takeaway is that there is reduced funding but the reserve account is able to keep our work plan fully funded.

Scott reviews budgets and reserve scenarios.

Mid-morning Break

Presentation given by Adi Baracos, relating to his Coastal river otter data. University of Wyoming, OSRI Graduate Research Fellowship.

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Review of OSRI reserve investment policy

Lindow: We discussed not going below 500 K in reserve

Joe : We should have a modest policy statement about our intentions—how the reserve can be spent and how much reserve to keep

Chuck: We talked about $500 K but it was a soft number. I’d encourage the group to maintain a substantial reserve.

Scott: Talked to one financial advisor and told him about the $500 K soft target—it also helps cover the gap between when our fiscal year starts and when the deposit arrives. He suggested it be a little higher in case you need a rainy day fund.

Bill: I support the idea of tasking the finance committee and staff to draft a policy statement.Joe: agrees.

Phil: I am looking at the history of how the deposits have changed over the years. Is it helpful to think about things in percentages versus a hard target? It does speak to having a healthy rainy day reserve.

Scott: we have taken steps to prevent something like the 2008 drop—when things were invested in short-term bonds. Since then we’ve moved to the 10 year laddered structure.Banta: It would be good to have a cheat sheet or diagram that explains the relationship between the science center and OSRI. Who has fiduciary responsibility for what?

Katrina: we can diagram that out for folks.

Review OSRI strategic planPhil: Motion to open strategic plan for editingDiane: SecondUnanimously approved

Doug: do we want to emphasize that we are an unbiased source of info? Scott: it is more appropriate to put in the 5-year research plan; this is the 10,000-foot view.

Joe Banta: Motion to accept revised strategic plan Chuck : SecondUnanimously approved

David: “People”, are a part of the communities and we need to be protected.Doug: I agree. The human dimension is very important.

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OSRI STC

STC Membership Request

Scott: We have 3 members who are on a 3-year term. Tom Royer, Dick Thorne, and Alan Mearns. All provide a lot of input. I recommends we accept the reappointment of these three members for an additional 3 years.

Doug: Think about adding someone juniors in their career path since many of these folks are in emeritus status.

Scott: Shall I recruit someone with toxicology expertise?

Samantha: what is the fiscal impact of having a bigger STC?

Scott: We have underspent our travel budget in the past few years.

Andres: Sounds like an opportunity to expand the group and pursue someone earlier in their career track.

Phil: I agree that successional planning is a good thing.

Sue Saupe: Motion to accept the three nomineesSamantha: SecondMotion passes unanimously.

Doug: we will continue with the next generation of senior scientist development.Phil: Thanks to these folks for volunteering their time—what they do is really valuable.Check on whether there’s an STC cap on membership #

Sue: when you do reviews of proposals, it goes through a process; the name of the reviewer is passed on with OSRI stuff. Why is that?

Scott: There is an option on the form to state who you are—or keep it confidential. So you’re a number unless you choose to identify yourself.

Election of officers to:Work Plan committee: Sue Saupe, Doug Helton, Rick Bernhardt, Angela Totemoff and Andres Morales.June 3rd will not work for some of these folks. Also, solicit STC participation.

LUNCH adjourned for lunch at 11:59

Reconvened at 12:56 pm

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Sublethal toxicity proposalSue: Motion to approve sublethal toxicity proposal funding based on corrections & responses received.Rick Bernhardt: Second thatPasses unanimouslyPhil: They said they would measure Corexit, but that is a mixture of chemicals. What will they use to track dispersant concentrate?Berhardt: Mary Beth Lee’s lab collaborates with U. of Washington. They use chemical compounds that make up Corexit. They are measuring surrogates that are not found in any other product. Phil: You are correct; Corexit cannot be measured directly because it is a cocktail of chemicals.Saupe: They have been responsive to our comments.Helton: There are big holes for really well done studies—this is a thoughtful approach.Saupe: Also note that this is leveraged funding.

Review Calendar/Schedule for committee and Board meetingsMeacham: Volunteers for both the PWSSC & OSRI finance policy workshops.There will be an STC Committee Meeting in Anchorage on March 26, 2015 at the NPRB Library room. FY16 Work Plan Committee meeting will be on June 3, 2015 in CordovaDue to several conflicts the Fall Annual Board meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 25th possibly in Anchorage. There is a drill scheduled in PWS that weekend as well. Copper River Nouveau is scheduled for June 6, 2015Clean Pacific workshop June 16-18 in Vancouver, Canada.

OSRI Board member comments

Cultural Heritage week, May 9th – 16th in Tatitlek. Info can be found at www.culturalweek.com

Adjournment at 1:21pmJoe Banta: Motion to adjourn Angela Totemoff: Second thatMotion passes unanimously

Minutes prepared by: Andrea Platt

These minutes were reviewed and approved on_______________by_______________________________ Susan Saupe, Secretary

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