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Tuesday, March 9, 1999
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
It's been 10 years since the Exxon Valdez impaled itself upon Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, but the costly consequences linger.
This case is a dismal object lesson that shows why stringent precautions must be taken to avoid oil spills in such places as the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Exxon has not paid a dime of the $5 billion punitive damage award to 33,000 Alaskans.
Not that the company, which is rolling in profits and seeking a merger with Mobil, has gotten off scot-free: It has spent $2.3 billion on cleanup, $1 billion in a settlement with the federal government and $300 million in compensation to people directly affected by the spill.
But until Exxon pays up, that merger should not go through.
Meanwhile, Capt. Joseph J. Hazelwood, who has been fighting his misdemeanor conviction of negligent discharge of oil, has yet to serve his eminently fitting sentence: picking up trash along the roadways in Anchorage.
Both Exxon and Hazelwood ought to stop fighting the courts and take their medicine like big boys.
The environmental damage from the 11 million-gallon spill continues to this day. Only two of the 28 affected species -- bald eagles and river otters -- have fully recovered, according to government scientists who monitor the damage. Killer whales, seals and some bird species are not recovering; salmon, herring and the vital intertidal ecosystems are recovering.
Seeing what Exxon wrought in Alaska should spur Congress and the Coast Guard to insist on better protections in other vulnerable venues such the those off the Washington coast.
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