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G R E N P E A C E
P r e s s R e l e a s e
29.03.95
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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 Managemece 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