Post-spill habitat restoration must be Exxon priority

June 16, 2006

SPECTRUM/David Marquez

On June 1, the state of Alaska and the U.S. Department of Justice announced intentions to exercise the &#8220reopener for unknown injury” provision of the 1991 Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement. The decision is a significant step toward our goal of completing restoration in the oil spill area. And it came only after a comprehensive and careful process.

The government began the analysis of the reopener provision in 1999 through a lengthy legal review and a request to state and federal agencies to evaluate potential claims. In 2001, we identified lingering oil as the most likely claim and recommended that additional research be done in order to determine its significance.

Over the next five years, a series of studies designed to confirm the extent of the presence of lingering oil and its biological significance was undertaken by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. The council research was carefully monitored by those charged with investigating and initiating a reopener claim.

In addition, studies intended to ascertain the current status of injured resources (specifically including herring) were completed. These were reviewed to determine whether a reopener claim might be made based upon a continuing injury.

The pace of the investigation quickened over the past year. The studies culminated in a series of public meetings in Alaska communities around the spill area. Information regarding the status of the resources was made available and widely distributed.

Many thoughtful suggestions were received from the public. The analysis was valuable and important in implementing our decision to assert a claim under the reopener provision.

It also deserves attention to note that ExxonMobil was provided with a project plan related to the unexpected and persistent presence of toxic oil in the intertidal zone of beaches in the oil spill area.

The project plan would identify all locations - both in and beyond Prince William Sound - with significant amounts of lingering oil. That included identifying remediation techniques that would remove the oil or render it harmless without harming the environment and implementation of those techniques.

We estimate this can be accomplished for slightly more than $92 million.

We have not put forward a project plan related to the continued diminishment of the herring population in Prince William Sound. However, that is not because we don't recognize the critical importance of herring to the ecosystem and to the people who live and work there.

Rather, despite numerous evaluations by knowledgeable experts, no sufficiently provable link between the current status of the herring population and the oil spill has been established to support a claim under the reopener provision. Nonetheless, we remain very concerned about herring.

We are committed to using substantial monies from the remaining civil trust funds to continue to investigate the reasons for the failure of the herring to rebound and to develop and implement restoration actions to help bring them back.

Our efforts going forward go well beyond satisfying the requirements of the reopener provision. They are based on a foundation of and commitment to good science.

ExxonMobil will need to time to review and evaluate our position. However, I hope that they will thoughtfully review and quickly come to recognize the benefits of our proposal for environmental restoration.

David Marquez is Gov. Murkowski's attorney general.