It’s been eight years since the Selendang Ayu cargo ship lost control and split in half outside Unalaska, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and killing six crewmembers. It was an accident with extreme consequences -- but it wasn't an isolated incident. Large cargo vessels have regularly run into trouble when traveling on the Great Circle shipping route. 

In December 2010, it was the Golden Seas, a 740-foot cargo ship en route to the United Arab Emirates from Canada. It lost power near Adak and started drifting towards shore. Shell Oil had a heavy-duty contract tug at the dock in Dutch Harbor. Despite bad weather and high seas, the Shell tug intercepted the drifting vessel.

What could have been another disaster, wasn’t -- but Rick Steiner says that was dumb luck.

"Where there just happened to be a tug available. [laughs] And thank you, Shell, for that. We can’t just do this so haphazardly and if there is an event, just hope that there’s a vessel out there," says Steiner.

Steiner was part of a group that lobbied for some Selendang Ayu settlement money to fund a risk assessment and figure out what it would take to prevent another disaster. A dedicated rescue tug was at the top of his list.

Now, Steiner says the study has dragged on too long -- and he says it’s being used as an excuse not to act.

"If they were doing a risk assess while putting interim protections in place like chartering an interim rescue tug to be on standby while they sort out the permanent system, that’s one thing," says Steiner. "But they’re not doing that."

Leslie Pearson is the project manager for the Aleutian Islands Risk Assessment. Right now, her team is starting the second half of their review.

They’ll be looking at logistics and ways to pay for safety tools needed in the Aleutians -- including tug and salvage service. Pearson says her team hasn’t even talked about hiring a tug while they do their study.

"I know everybody’s patience tends to run out when there’s money put towards studies," Pearson says. "But in order for big-ticket risk reduction options to be implemented, you’ve got to have the information in your back pocket, in order to ask for funding and implement [things] like a permanently stationed rescue tug. Plus, you have to have the ideas to be supported and accepted by the maritime industry, who is likely to be the one funding these items."

The idea is that it’s easier to get state support for something as nebulous as "shipping safety," when you can present a finished product or a comprehensive plan. That’s the approach that Unalaska mayor Shirley Marquardt favors.

Marquardt is an advisor on the risk assessment panel, and the backer of two emergency resources for Unalaska -- a towing kit, and a mooring buoy outside of town that can hold a broken-down cargo ship. Marquardt says it was easier to build those tools independently than to ask the state to move first.

"We’re just able to move a whole lot faster on our own," says Marquardt. "It was a homegrown answer to a challenge that we were seeing over and over again."

But when it comes to a rescue tug, things get complicated. Both Steiner, the activist, and Pearson, who is running the risk assessment, say the state would have to step in to pay for a rescue tug while a permanent plan is worked out. Unalaska’s mayor would be the clear choice to lobby for that kind of help.

But Marquardt says she would never consider doing that. Even though it’s a concrete safety improvement, she says a rescue tug is also a logistical nightmare.

"We’re not going to come and say, 'Give us a rescue tug.' Because the first question they’d ask would be, 'Where are you going to put it? Is it going to patrol or sit? Who’s going to fund it? Who has to use it? Who’s going to maintain it? Are you just going to keep it there in the winter, or are you going to have it there all year round?' And to every one of them, I’d go, 'I don’t know,'" says Marquardt. "I would never do that."

Those logistical questions are the ones the risk assessment will try to answer in their study. Pearson thinks the solution will be a collaboration between the shipping industry and the state and federal governments. But a concrete agreement could be years off.

In the meantime, Steiner, the activist, wants to see tariffs collected on cargo, to help pay for a tug and more detailed vessel monitoring right now. He’s been lobbying the state and federal governments this month to lay the groundwork for that -- so the next time there’s a Golden Seas threatening to run aground in the Aleutians, responders know exactly who to call.