The Coast Guard says a tugboat Pathfinder has been safely towed to and moored at the Valdez Petroleum Terminal in the Port of Valdez. The tugboat arrived in Valdez at 12:56 a.m., Sunday with a total transport time of ten-hours.

In the past month alone, Alaska has seen three major oil spills. Two of them took place in Prudhoe Bay, from BP pipelines and most recently, on Christmas Eve by an Alyeska Pipeline contractor in Prince William Sound in the same spot where the Exxon Valdez spill occurred.

Governor Sean Parnell wants answers. He has asked the attorney general and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to look into what happened.

As for the recent spill in Prince William Sound, a state spokesman says there appears to be no significant environmental damage.

The 136-foot tugboat, Pathfinder was expected to arrive at the Petro Star dock in Valdez around 7p.m., Dec. 26. That is when 93 thousand gallons of fuel will be transferred from the undamaged tanks. Crews removed more than 40 thousand gallons of diesel and water mix from the punctured fuel tank Friday night, Dec 25.

But there are still a lot of unanswered questions like why was the Pathfinder even near the reef in the first place.

Moreover, after the oil industry's two oil spills in Prudhoe Bay in one month, Governor Sean Parnell called executives at both BP Exploration and Alyeska Pipeline Service Company to express


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his deep concern and wants the state to look into all of these spills. "Frankly, when I saw so many spills in such a short time I was indignant that these spills would occur," said Governor Sean Parnell, "The spills harm both Alaska's environment and Alaska's reputation for responsible resource development. I let the companies know this was not acceptable."

The Pathfinder remained anchored south of Busby Island since Wednesday night surrounded by two rings of containment boom after it ran aground on Bligh Reef. This was in the exact spot of the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years ago. State officials say there's no estimate of how much diesel spilled into the water. "There is no comparison in terms of environmental impact between the two events," said on-site coordinator with DEC, Gary Folley. "In this case there was some diesel fuel that was spilled and it was cleaned up as much as we could recover the oil. There was no impact on any of the shorelines, no wildlife was impacted."

The Pathfinder is accompanied by the U.S. Coast Guard enforcing a 200 yard safety zone around the tug while it is under tow.

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