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Officials mull seeking more claims for Exxon Valdez
Dan Joling Associated Press Writer
Officials said Oct. 1 that no decisions have been made about whether to pursue additional claims against ExxonMobil for damage in Prince William Sound from the huge 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
A consent decree in damage lawsuits filed after the spill contains a clause that allows Alaska and the federal government to pursue other claims — up to $100 million — for injuries unknown when the settlement was reached in 1991.
Exxon already has agreed to pay $900 million for the cleanup from the 11 million gallon spill. The period for exercising that clause runs through Sept. 1, 2006.
“There is no decision yet,” said Craig Tillery, an assistant Alaska attorney general in Anchorage. “There certainly is progress in making a decision.”
The matter also is under review at the Justice Department.
The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 1 that newly released documents indicate the spill continues to damage the sound and that the findings could be used to seek additional payments. ExxonMobil calls sound healthy ExxonMobil disagrees. Spokesman Tom Cirigliano said the sound is healthy and that plants and animals have returned to the site of the spill. The company and the settlement trustees, however, disagree over the definition of a healthy ecosystem, he said.
ExxonMobil argues that recovery is defined as the presence of native plant and animal species “functioning normally,” while the trustees define it in part as a return to pre-spill wildlife populations.
“That's not practical or accurate,” Cirigliano said. “In some cases, they didn't have (pre-spill) numbers to begin with, and some species, like harbor seals, were declining well before the spill. They have continued the same rate of decline. Obviously it has nothing to do with the spill.”
If the state or federal governments request more money, “we will carefully evaluate what they come to us with, and we'll make a decision,” Cirigliano said. Trustees site spilled oil remaining in sound The documents were made public following a Freedom of Information request by Rick Steiner, a marine biologist at the University of Alaska Anchorage and a critic of the state's oil industry.
Among the documents was a June 12 memo by Molly McCammon, then executive director of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. McCammon noted a rise in egg mortalities of pink salmon, a decline in survival of female harlequin ducks exposed to parts of the sound that remain polluted with oil, and continuing accumulation of oil in mussels and other invertebrate species.
Though pink salmon have since recovered, she said, unexpectedly high levels of spilled oil remain in the sound, posing a threat to ducks, mussels and sea otters.
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