Beyond Preparedness – How Alaska Chadux̂ Network’s Investments Are Defining Alaska’s Oil Spill Response Readiness
How Alaska Chadux̂ Network’s Investments Are Defining Alaska’s Oil Spill Response Readiness
By Norman L. “Buddy” Custard, Captain, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
President & Chief Executive Officer, Alaska Chadux̂ Network
A Proven Foundation of Readiness
Monitoring Stars - Live Time
The Alaska Chadux Network (ACN) serves as a cornerstone of Alaska’s maritime, fuel transportation, and fuel storage industries. ACN is a nonprofit organization governed by an industry-led board of directors representing the petroleum and maritime shipping sectors that was founded in 1993. Our mission is to ensure compliance with federal and state oil spill prevention and response requirements while advancing practical, innovative solutions to the unique operational challenges of Alaska and the U.S. Arctic.
“Prevention Focused – Response Ready” defines ACN’s ethos. From the industry’s perspective, reducing the risk of an oil pollution incident is as critical as maintaining robust response capabilities. Accordingly, ACN’s programs balance proactive risk mitigation with sustained response readiness. Our foremost objectives are the safety of crews and the protection of the environment for vessels and facilities operating in one of the world’s most demanding regions—while ensuring full regulatory compliance.
ACN’s programs are structured around the tenets Prevent – Respond – Pioneer. Each reinforces the others, forming an integrated system designed to protect the land and sea environments from oil pollution. Today, ACN provides oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response services to more than 665 companies, representing over 5,200 vessels operating worldwide and more than 140 facilities across Alaska. Over the past three decades, ACN has evolved alongside industry, building and maintaining the largest staged inventory of oil spill response equipment in Alaska, strategically positioned throughout Prince William Sound, Western Alaska, and the U.S. Arctic.
That capability is strengthened by a deep network of Alaska-based resource providers and partnerships developed over more than 30 years of continuous service. With 17 response hubs strategically located in Western and Southcentral Alaska, ACN can mobilize rapidly when needed. This readiness is further reinforced by more than 60 vessels of opportunity staged in nine ports, along with standing agreements with wildlife response organizations, barge operators, and specialized contractors. Together, these assets deliver a full spectrum of response capabilities tailored specifically to Alaska’s vast, remote, and high-risk operating environment.
Preparedness is not static. It is sustained through continual training, investment, and real-world application. In 2025 alone, ACN responded to ten oil spill incidents and participated in 24 drills and exercises. We routinely support agencies in validating Geographic Response Strategies within Area Contingency Plans and assist companies in meeting state and federal exercise requirements through hands-on planning and execution.
Innovation in Real Time: The STARS System
In 2025, ACN and its industry partners delivered a significant advancement in Alaska’s oil spill prevention and response capability with the deployment of a fully integrated, cloud-based environmental prevention and response platform—the Strategic Tracking, Alerting & Response System (STARS).
Alaska’s operating realities demand more than static plans and after-the-fact reporting. Effective prevention and response require real-time situational awareness and a shared common operating picture that integrates vessel activity, environmental conditions, and geographic risk. STARS was developed from years of on-the-ground response experience and leverages next-generation Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology to meet that need.
Based in Anchorage, STARS integrates live data streams across 1.5 million square miles, including vessel and aircraft tracking, weather and sea state, ice conditions, sensitive habitat overlays, ports of refuge, Geographic Response Strategies, critical infrastructure, contaminated sites, community information, and emerging hazards such as wildland fires. ACN operates one of the most comprehensive vessel tracking systems in Alaska, utilizing both satellite and terrestrial Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Information that was once fragmented is now transformed into actionable intelligence.
From ACN’s Anchorage Monitoring Center, professional watchstanders operate 24/7, employing advanced geofencing, automated alerts, and direct communications with vessel operators to identify anomalies that may indicate developing risk conditions or encroachment into sensitive areas. Working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, industry representatives, and partner response organizations, ACN enhances situational awareness and provides precise vessel location data to support search and rescue operations, environmental protection, wildlife impact reduction, and the safe movement of commerce throughout Alaska.
STARS is not technology for technology’s sake. It is a practical, operational tool designed to improve outcomes—enabling faster decisions, more efficient resource deployment, and stronger protection of Alaska’s most sensitive resources, often before an incident occurs.
2025 Case Studies in Resilience and Response
The value of ACN’s sustained investments in people, training, and technology was demonstrated repeatedly in the field this year.
Rapid Response in Kodiak
In the fall of 2025, ACN and its contracted response partners responded to a vessel grounding that released several thousand gallons of diesel fuel near a salmon hatchery on Afognak Island, north of Kodiak. By integrating real-time field reports with sensitive-area mapping and environmental data, STARS provided an effective common operating picture of boom deployment and shoreline assessment. The result was rapid containment and the prevention of significant impacts to the hatchery—an outcome that underscores the importance of readiness supported by real-time intelligence.
Community Support After Typhoon Halong
Following Typhoon Halong, ACN was mobilized to assist assessment and mitigation efforts in the remote community of Kipnuk, where home heating oil tanks were damaged or displaced by the severe and destructive storm. ACN teams completed the initial phase of environmental response, recovering oil fluids and contaminated debris while documenting 186 geo-referenced data points with photographs and notes related to impacted areas.
That information will support continued assessment through the winter and guide agency-led recovery efforts next spring. The response reflects ACN’s commitment not only to immediate mitigation but also to long-term community recovery and environmental stewardship.
Vigilance into 2026 and Beyond
As we look toward 2026 and beyond, Alaska Chadux̂ Network will continue to advance a shared commitment to environmental stewardship and transportation safety across Alaska’s maritime, rail, and road networks. In a state where fuel and cargo move seamlessly from vessels to terminals, rail lines, and highways, often across vast distances and extreme conditions, risk reduction and pollution prevention depend on anticipating hazards and acting early. Safe navigation, secure fuel transport, and effective spill prevention are inseparable, whether operations occur offshore, along the coast, or across Interior Alaska.
ACN is focused on evolving alongside industry by leveraging real-time data, enhanced situational awareness, and expanded partnerships to reduce risk to mariners, vessels, facilities, transportation corridors, and communities. By aligning prevention, preparedness, and response into a single, integrated system, ACN helps operators navigate uncertainty while maintaining safe, reliable commerce across Alaska’s waters and land.
Our Alaska-based team remains vigilant—on watch around the clock, every day of the year—working to identify emerging hazards, support safer operations, and ensure rapid, effective response when needed. Protecting Alaska’s waters, wildlife, mariners, and communities is not simply our mission; it is a responsibility we are proud to uphold on behalf of the industries and communities we serve. ♦
