6th Anniversary of Exxon Spill

[The.Greenbase@gb.greenpeace.org]

>>  ADDING INSULT TO INJURY IN ALASKA: 

 
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                    GREENPEACE EDITORIAL
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>>  ADDING INSULT TO INJURY IN ALASKA: 
 
(GP) The Sixth Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill  Marked
with Proposals for More Oil Development in Alaska  
 
Friday March 24, 1995 marks the sixth anniversary of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill. On that now historical day, the Exxon
Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound and spilled over
11 million gallons of North Slope crude, oiling over 1,500 miles
of Alaska's coastline and killing more wildlife than any other
spill.  It is the largest and most devastating oil tanker spill
in U.S. history, and an event which persists as the gauge by
which most environmental disasters are measured.
  
     There are many on-going and long-term effects of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, and the time for complete recovery is unknown.
Oil settled among mussel beds in the intertidal zone retains its
full toxicity and causes continuous and chronic poisoning in the
marine environment.  Scientists estimate that certain seabird
communities may not recover for up to 80 years.  Herring and pink
salmon demonstrate genetic damage and reproductive impairment. 
Sea otters are still dying.  The Exxon Valdez oil spill also
continues to have an extraordinary destabilizing effect on human
communities.   
     Unfortunately, it appears that we haven't learned from our
mistakes.
 
     The U.S. Interior Department's own Minerals Management
Service  is currently proposing to auction two million acres to
the oil and gas industry, all within the area still suffering the
long-term effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and an area where
$900 million is being spent on restoration from spill impacts.   
 
     The National Park Service, also within the Interior
Department, has advised the Minerals Management Service that
offshore oil and gas leasing in Lower Cook Inlet and Shelikof
Strait "could be counterproductive to efforts initiated by
federal/state natural resource trustees to restore resources
injured by the Exxon Valdez oil spill."  The National Park
Service further recommended that the lease sale be "deferred
until the full extent of the injury to Trust resources, including
those of the National Park Service, is known and the damaged
resources have recovered to appropriate pre-spill conditions."
 
     At a recent hearing in the small fishing community of Homer,
Alaska, a community recovering from the impacts of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill, over 400 people turned out in opposition to the
sale.  The Homer City Council, and numerous Alaska Native
villages affected by the spill and within the proposed lease sale
area, have passed resolutions opposing the sale. 
    
     The proposed lease sale area includes or borders five
national wildlife refuges, four national parks and preserves, and
contains the highest concentration of state-designated critical
habitat areas in Alaska.  The marine environment supports Native
cultures that rely on subsistence for survival and a commercial
fishing industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
 
  
     Despite its own estimates of a 64 percent risk of two or
more catastrophic oil spills, the Minerals Management Service
continues to force the sale of this ecologically sensitive and
economically vital marine area.  The waters within the lease sale
area are federally designated as critical habitat for the steller
sea lion, a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act
whose population has declined over 70 percent in Alaskan waters
since the mid-1970s, and it critical habitat to beluga whales and
other species. 
 
     People around the world were outraged when the Exxon Valdez
oil spill defiled Alaska's pristine coastline.  Partially in
response to their distrust of oil development, citizens of this
country forced Congress to enact moratoria on offshore oil and
gas drilling in virtually all areas of the country except the
Gulf of Mexico and, ironically, Alaska.  Alaska's pro-development
Congressional delegation prevented moratoria in all areas of
Alaska except Bristol Bay, one of the largest commercial
fisheries in the world.  Lease sales in Bristol Bay were halted
after extreme pressure from Native, commercial fishing, and
environmental groups demanded buy-back of the leases already sold
to the oil and gas industry.  Ultimately, the U.S. Government's
bad judgement will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.  
 
     If Lower Cook Inlet and Shelikof Strait are opened to oil
and gas, it is fair to expect that people who depend on fishing
for their existence and still suffer the effects of the Exxon
Valdez oil spill will demand buy-back.  The ecological and
economic values of this area are too great to risk to fuel this
nation's fossil fuel addiction for a meager one or two weeks
(based on current consumption levels).  
 
     As we contemplate the anniversary of the devastating effects
of the Exxon Valdez spill, let us also consider the consequences
of accelerated oil and gas development in Alaska. Let us also
learn to value other commerce, especially fishing, and indigenous
culture which rely upon the healthy seas for their existence.
Finally we must examine the cost of our continued reliance on
polluting fossil fuels, and the great expense of ignoring clean,
renewable energy as a solution to drilling and spilling.
 
 
  
Pamela Miller, Staff Biologist with Greenpeace Alaska