Forgotten but not gone: Valdez takes human toll, too

June 13, 1998,-- Molly Benjamin is a Cape Cod Times columnist.
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JUST OVER NINE years ago, Capt. Joe Hazelwood peered out of his wheelhouse and spotted a whole bunch of icebergs up ahead. He switched tanker lanes.

The move put him on course for Bligh Reef and infamy. Hazelwood was never to touch a steering wheel again.

His ship, the "Exxon Valdez," spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil along a shoreline as long as the stretch from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras. Hundreds of thousands of fish, marine mammals and seabirds were killed, drawing great national attention.

The cameras are long gone, of course. What has happened to the fishermen and their families whose lives were so abruptly disrupted by this terrible oil spill?

The news from Prince William Sound, and nearby towns such as Seward and Homer, is not good.

After a four-month trial, a federal jury in 1994 ordered Exxon to pay a record $5 billion fine. Fishermen were to receive 80 percent of the award, municipalities, Alaskan native Americans, and private landowners are in line for the rest.

But nobody's seen a red cent. Nor a black one, either, according to the fishing-trade magazine "National Fisherman."

Exxon is the most profitable oil company in the world. With yearly average earnings of $5.7 billion, it is worth more than most countries.

In 1997, Exxon posted a record profit of almost $8.5 billion. Despite one of the most publicized disasters in modern history, Exxon's stock has tripled since 1989.

It's obvious that if they wished, they could pay the bill. It's unfortunately obvious they apparently don't.

Instead, they have chosen to take as litigious a course as possible.

It could be argued that the Dallas-based conglomerate has a responsibility to its shareholders to attempt to reduce the fine. However, NF quotes a former Alaskan assistant attorney general as noting that it's not always advantageous to be hellbent and aggressive with the litigation. "At some point, both sides know enough about the case - its strengths and its weaknesses - to sit down with the other side and settle it," he said.

Presumably, Exxon has one of the best and biggest legal staffs in the galaxy. It isn't hard to imagine them paralyzing the process forever.

Meanwhile, what has happened to the fishermen?

Before the Valdez, the folks in the fishing communities along this stretch of the nation's biggest state were doing right well. Times were good, everyone was making money. In this part of Alaska, there are about 35 different species to fish and dozens of ways to go about fishing for them. Each is highly regulated, and the system has proved sustainable and healthy.

Before the Valdez, their boats were worth money, their permits were worth money, things were rolling along nicely. Sittin' on top of the world.

But nothing is the same since that March 24 night in 1989. Guys have gone bankrupt. Marriages have bent and broken under the combined strain of financial woes, frustrations and uncertainties. Drinking problems have cropped up like dandelions, folks have moved, many have sold their permits and their boats.

Communities often fall apart when their inhabitants can't cope with a suddenly altered world, their lives in ruins.

The human cost has been enormous.

The $5 billion of Exxon's fine sits in an escrow account, where it earns some $10 a second - almost $900,000 a day.

And all the while fishermen wonder how to make some money this month, this summer, next fall, and they consider how to hang on to their homes, their property, their families.

Exxon's choice is to have their legal staff keep everyone twisting in the wind.

The pink salmon stocks in Prince William Sound have suffered genetic damage.

The herring fisheries have been closed for years because of the tumble they took after oil spill. Bird and marine mammal populations are still not back to where they started.

Even as these populations slowly recover, you can still find layers of tar a few inches below the surface of the beaches.

Bad enough this terrible accident ever occurred.

Worse that so much time has passed without remediation.

Most of us already know we have serious problems in both our economic and legal systems.

This still-unfolding tale simply fuels that perception.


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169 1998 Cape Cod Times. All rights reserved.

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