Right now, The Minerals Management Service is considering offering more
leases to the oil and gas industry in a 73-million-acre area off Alaska's
northern coast, putting marine wildlife in real danger.
There is simply no safe way to drill in these waters. Studies have shown
that even seismic testing of potential drilling sites is known to have an
impact on marine animals' habits and lifecycles. And research conducted
by the MMS indicates that with extensive drilling, small crude oil and
other petroleum spills are inevitable. MMS predicts a 40% chance of a
large spill. Making matters worse, the technology to clean up a spill in
Arctic waters full of broken sea ice doesn't even exist. 
We need science to guide decisions with such long-lasting effects, not
pressure from the oil and gas industry. Until there is scientific
evidence that drilling won't harm wildlife, all new oil leases should be
taken off the table.
Write the MMS today to ask that they halt all new leases until the
science on drilling is in.
NCHORAGE — For Steve Smith, the 20-year anniversary of the nation’s worst
oil spill is like flowers at a loved one’s grave, the mourner
contemplating a heartbreaking loss alone and without fanfare.
“It’s like a death in the family,” the 70-year-old fisherman said of the
Exxon Valdez disaster. “With time it gets a little better, but the pain
never really goes away. Until this generation passes on, I don’t think it
will ever really be over.”
Smith is among the scores of residents of Cordova and other communities
whose lives were forever changed on March 24, 1989. That’s when the
tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground at Alaska’s Bligh Reef, spewing 11
million gallons of crude into the rich fishing waters of Prince William
Sound. The legal and environmental repercussions are still felt today.
Cordova itself, 45 miles to the southeast, was not directly touched by
the slick that soiled 1,200 miles of shoreline. But Smith and other
residents say the spill was a staggering blow for a town so reliant on
commercial fishing, particularly for herring, whose numbers plummeted
several years after the spill and have yet to return.
“It was a tragic accident and one of the lowest points in our history,”
Exxon Mobil Corp. spokesman Alan Jeffers said Monday of the disaster.
An Anchorage jury awarded victims $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994,
but that amount was cut in half by other courts on appeals by Exxon.
Smith was planning his retirement with the
$2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon was expected to pay the
nearly 33,000 plaintiffs.
Then last June, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to cut the punitive
damages to $507.5 million. That translates to an average of $15,000 per
victim. Scores of plaintiffs are still waiting to be paid their share and
still unresolved is whether Exxon Mobil should have to pay interest,
which would add an estimated $488 million if calculated since 1994.
It’s not surprising then, that many Cordova fishermen won’t be among
those attending a host of events and presentations in Alaska and outside
the state commemorating the spill 20 years later. No events are planned
by the Cordova District Fishermen United, which represents the commercial
fishing fleet in the town of 2,200.
“It’s hard to keep dwelling on this thing that has caused so much pain in
this community,” said executive director Rochelle van den Broek. “The
term ‘anniversary’ kind of offends a lot of fishermen. The term implies
celebration and there’s nothing to celebrate.”
The spill killed hundreds of thousands of birds and other marine animals,
inflicting environmental injuries that have not fully recovered,
according to numerous scientific studies.
Exxon Mobil countered that many studies found the area healthy and
thriving. The Irving, Texas-based company had said punitive damages would
be excessive punishment on top of the $3.4 billion in cleanup costs,
compensatory payments and fines it already has paid.
Exxon maintained it should not be liable for the actions of the
supertanker’s skipper, Joseph Hazelwood, when the nearly 1,000-foot
vessel ran aground with 53 millions gallons of oil in its hold.
According to prosecutors, Hazelwood was drunk, but he denied it and was
acquitted of the charge in criminal court. Plaintiffs say Exxon knew
Hazelwood had begun drinking again after seeking treatment, but the
company still put him at the helm.
Hazelwood apologized to Alaskans in the recently released book, “The
Spill, Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster,” by Sharon
Bushell and Stan Jones.
“Occasionally people have called me a scapegoat, but I’ve never felt
comfortable with that term when applied to me in regard to the oil
spill,” he says. “I was captain of a ship that ran aground and caused a
horrendous amount of damage. I’ve got to be responsible for that. There’s
no way around it.”
Outwardly, the sound’s stunning beauty has been restored, its network of
islands, fjords and glaciers offering breathtaking views. But residents
in Cordova and other communities say the area is still far from
recovered. It took years for salmon numbers to rebound, and sea otters
and Harlequin ducks still are below pre-spill numbers there.
An estimated 21,000 gallons of crude linger, researchers say. Jars of
oil-stained sand and rocks still being dug up in the spill area can be
examined at the Prince William Sound Science Center in Cordova.
“Scientists tell me the remaining oil will take decades and possibly
centuries to disappear,” said Nancy Bird, president of the science
center.
Jeffers, the Exxon spokesman, said the spill led to significant reforms,
including improved technologies and a new management system. For example,
it has instituted drug and alcohol testing for safety sensitive
positions, jobs that cannot be held by those with substance abuse
histories.
“We learned from this tragedy and went about developing a system to
prevent this from ever happening again,” Jeffers said.
Sen. Johnny Ellis, the only sitting legislator who was in office in 1989,
said the Exxon Valdez disaster spelled the loss of Alaska’s innocence.
“That’s when Alaskans realized that all the folks they thought were
looking out for them were asleep at the wheel,” the Anchorage Democrat
said.
Still, the state remains bullish on oil and gas development, which is key
to its economic viability.
Alaska’s politicians continue to push for new development, whether it’s
oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, offshore oil and gas
production or the construction of a $30 billion natural gas pipeline from
the North Slope to markets in the Midwest.
Ellis said complacency always has posed the greatest danger.
The Exxon Valdez spill ripped a hole in that complacency 20 years ago.
More recently, Ellis said, it was a corruption scandal that netted prison
terms for legislators who were too cozy with an oil services company that
was pushing more favorable tax terms for the industry.
“Yes we are doing better,” Ellis said. “We learned a lot of things. We
improved our systems, but we’re not there yet to do the best job we can
for the public.”
Associated Press writer Anne Sutton in Juneau contributed to this report.
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