Nation IN BRIEF : ALASKA : Excessive Oil Vapors Trigger Safeguards

The discovery of unexpectedly high levels of oil vapor in the air at the Alyeska terminal in Valdez has triggered new environmental safeguards at the massive port near the site of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, officials said. Oil firms have reduced pipeline flow into the port, which handles a quarter of the nation’s domestic crude oil, and ordered workers to wear respirators. The vapor control system at the Alyeska pipeline terminal is falling apart, vapors from tankers are uncontrolled, and oil vapors are more than double what regulators had suspected, said an official of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. He said the Alyeska pipeline terminal has air pollution equivalent to 15% of that in the Greater Los Angeles area.