The end of an arctic paradise
By Traci Watson, USA TODAY
Just before midnight on March 23, 1989, Joseph Hazelwood has said, he decided to take a break from guiding his oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez, through Prince William Sound in Alaska. Hazelwood left the ship's bridge in the hands of third mate Gregory Cousins and went to his cabin to fill out some forms.
Never did diligence about paperwork lead to such devastation. In the first five minutes of March 24, 1989, while Hazelwood was in his cabin, his ship lurched onto a rock called Bligh Reef. The impact gashed several deep holes in the hull. Soon the Valdez, a supertanker more than 900 feet long, was gushing oil into the clear waters.
Before the hemorrhage could be stopped, the tanker had bled 11 million gallons of North Slope crude into the sound. Ten years later, the Exxon Valdez spill retains its place in history as one of America's most notorious environmental disasters.
The world had seen many bigger spills. But this spill fouled one of the great wild places in America's wildest state. Prince William Sound had been a haven for all kinds of creatures that are rarities elsewhere. The sound teemed with killer whales, sea otters and bald eagles. Thousands of people depended on the sound for jobs in the fishing industry or for food to sustain them through the winters.
 One baby and five adult sea otters lie dead on a beach more than a week after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound (AFP file). |
The spill ended the sound's image as an arctic paradise. Government scientists estimate that the oil killed as many as 250 bald eagles, 2,800 sea otters and 200,000 to 300,000 sea birds. Exxon scientists dispute some of their findings.
Animals and birds weren't the only ones to suffer. The year of the spill, the pink salmon harvest, an economic engine for dozens of small towns, was canceled. The fishery for Pacific herring had to be closed from 1994 through 1996. Native villagers accustomed to relying on the sound's bounty for meals were forced to find other foods.
The trauma and economic difficulties showed up in a rise in substance abuse and divorce in communities around the sound. Eight years after the spill, a long-term anthropological study found that many residents still suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Responding to the combination of ecological and public-relations disasters, Exxon mounted one of the largest cleanup campaigns ever undertaken by a private company. A hundred planes and 1,000 ships were mobilized, along with 11,000 workers enticed by wages of $16.69 an hour for unskilled labor.
Over the next three years, Exxon workers spent hours scrubbing down beaches, rock by rock. They bathed and hand-fed dozens of sea otters at a cost of $80,000 per saved otter and did the same for bald eagles, at a cost of $10,000 per bird. Workers also sprayed tide pools with high-pressure jets of hot water, which not only erased the oil but also the microorganisms and invertebrates that lived there at the bottom of the food chain.
Despite spending $2 billion on the cleanup, Exxon could not erase all the vestiges of the spill. Oil remains on some of the sound's beaches, though no one, not even the federal government, will estimate how much.
Before Hazelwood left the bridge, he had given orders that would have kept the Valdez out of harm's way, but ultimately he was charged with felony criminal mischief and Exxon was accused of negligence and a shoddy response to the spill. The first lawsuits were filed before the scrubbing ended. The results:
In 1990, a jury acquitted Hazelwood of three charges and convicted him only of a misdemeanor count of spilling oil. He is scheduled to begin the community-service portion of his sentence this summer in Alaska. No court has ever held anyone else responsible. Testimony showed that third mate Cousins, who took over the helm for Hazelwood, gave an order to turn the ship that would have kept it off the rocks. But helmsman Robert Kagan, whom some crewmates regarded as irresponsible, might not have executed the order in time.
In 1991, Exxon agreed to settle a civil complaint filed by the U.S. government and the state of Alaska. The company will pay $1 billion over 10 years to the two governments. Exxon also was slapped with a criminal fine of $150 million. The U.S. and Alaskan governments have set up a council to oversee the spending of the award. The council has doled out $392 million to buy the land or the development rights to the land around the sound to preserve it - the most lasting legacy of the spill.
In 1994, a jury awarded Alaska Natives, fishermen and thousands of others $5.2 billion in punitive damages. Exxon continues to fight that judgment, even though it is paying 6% interest per day on the award. The appeal is pending.
© Copyright 1999 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Reprinted here with permission.
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