After her renovation, "Sweetbrier" was assigned to Cordova, Alaska. In February 1976, while enroute to her new assignment, one of her sailors was killed at the Navy Fuel Facility pier at San Diego when he fell between the ship and the dock. "Sweetbrier" arrived at her new home port in March 1976. There she continued with her maintenance of aids to navigation, and assisting the local fishing fleet, but she had a new consideration. Cordova sits on the eastern edge of the supertanker route from the terminus of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline System in Valdez to the Pacific Ocean. On January 17, 1980 the tanker "Prince William Sound" carrying 831,000 barrels of crude oil lost power and began drifting towards shore. Sweetbrier responded, but with gusts reaching 70 knots was unable to get a tow line to the disabled ship. After drifting for 16 hours, "Prince William Sound" was able to restart her engines and proceed safely, but by that time was only six miles from the rocky shore. On March 24, 1989, another supertanker on the same route met a worse fate. The "Exxon Valdez" ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound spilling 10,800,000 US gallons (41,000 m3) of crude oil. "Sweetbrier" was part of a large Coast Guard response to the spill. She performed air traffic control, salmon hatchery protection, and safety zone enforcement around the grounded tanker.