24 Mar 2014
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Remembering the Exxon Valdez - 25 Years Later
posted by Unknown @ 10:32 1 Comments
“I think I want people to remember that eternal vigilance is the price of safety," says Mark Swanson, executive director of the Prince William Sound Regional Citizens Advisory Council. "You have to be vigilant, you have to focus on prevention, and you can’t just focus on response. If you prevent the next spill you’re miles ahead.”
It was just after midnight
on Good Friday 1989 when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh
Reef. The rocks there ripped open eight
of the ship’s eleven cargo holds. The
crash led to more than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilling into the
pristine waters of Prince William Sound . The quiet fishing village has never been the
same.
The effects of the spill still linger
The oil slick that ensued spread far beyond the sound. Oil moved as far as 460 miles to the north,
this according to the Exxon Valdez Oil
Spill Trustee Council. 35,000 dead
birds and 1000 sea otters were recovered.
But biologists believe that’s the tip of the iceberg. An unknown number of carcasses are believed
to have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
Former Valdez Mayor John Devens says that even today, 25
years later, still the accident is too painful to talk about for many. The accident n ot only killed countless
wildlife, but changed the lives of everyone involved.
“We were all at fault,” Devens said. “The city (of Valdez )
was at fault because we had never read the contingency plans." Devens had appointed a committee only weeks
before, feeling that both the city and the industry were not ready for an event
of this sort.
In the wake of the accident
In the wake of the tragedy, the Ship Escort/Response Vessel
System (SERVS) was established to help make tanker traffic safer. The system operates 11 escort vessels that
now guide tankers in and out of Prince William Sound . Oil recovery bags are now stationed at key
points in the sound.
“The way to fight complacency is that you continuously
challenge yourself and you drill and test, so we do over a hundred drills a
year,” says SERVS director, Andres Morales. “We live here, our families live
here, our friends. We have employees that have families that go back
generations in Prince William Sound . It is an absolute
mandate that we will not have an incident like that again.”
But the PWS Regional Citizens Advisory Council says not
enough has been done. It believes the
oil industry relies too much on chemical dispersants and that the federal
government needs to do more.
Now 25 years later, Prince William Sound RCAC Executive
Director Swanson says that “there’s a justifiable pride,” in the
community. “There’s a really good system
of prevention and spill response in place, but I think a humble acknowledgment
is not enough. We could be doing more;
perhaps we should be doing more.”
While officials at ExxonMobil declined comment on the
anniversary, the company website did post a statement.
“The 1989 Valdez
accident was one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil's 125-year history,” says
the website. “However, we took immediate
responsibility for the spill and have spent over $4.3 billion as a result of
the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements
and fines.
The company voluntarily
compensated more than 11,000 Alaskans and businesses within a year of the
spill.”
The initial $5 billion settlement for victims in the
sound was later reduced to just $500 million.
25 years later, Devens warns that even with the
increased safety measures, the area still remains vulnerable and susceptible to
a future tragedy. As time goes by, he
warns, the lessons learned may fade from memory.
“Complacency has set in and I’m sorry to see
that," Devens says. "But I think it’s natural – people forget.”
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