Exxon Set To Salvage Tanker; Captain May Surrender; Cleanup Drags On
Exxon crews Tuesday finished pumping the remaining crude oil out of the tanker Exxon Valdez in preparation for refloating and removing the source of the nation's worst-ever oil spill. The fugitive captain of the Exxon Valdez sent signals he was ready to surrender to face criminal charges of operating the vessel while drunk. Meanwhile, Exxon said placing an oil-catching boom around the ship immediately after the grounding could have touched off a giant explosion of gases from the oil, although that was not the reason it took 11 hours to set the first containment line. ``The worst thing we could have done early on was try to boom the vessel. We would have lost the vessel,'' said Exxon Shipping Co. President Frank Iarossi. A boom wasn't placed around the vessel for 11 hours because it wasn't available in Valdez, Exxon officials have said. Iarossi also said Exxon has changed its policy because of the spill and now requires crews to be aboard ship, where drinking is prohibited, four hours before sailing. Authorities charged the captain had been drinking before the Valdez sailed. Thick oil has floated over more than 1,640 square miles and soiled 800 miles of beach. Thousands of animals are known dead, including 30 sea otters. Early Tuesday, Exxon said it had finished transferring about 42 million gallons of crude to three other ships. Another 42 million gallons of oily waste water remained aboard the Valdez, which spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound when it struck a reef March 24. The company said crews would attempt to pump air into the hold and refloat the vessel off a reef at high tide Wednesday afternoon. If freed, the still-leaking ship, which has eight holes some 20 feet long in its hull, will be towed to a remote and already fouled cove for repairs. Exxon then planned to take the ship to a port in the Far East, or to a Portland, Ore., dry dock. Port officials there said they weren't sure if they'd allow that, even though the $12 million repair bill would provide about 200 jobs. ``We're not willing to trade in the environment for jobs,'' Portland port spokesman Darrel Buttice said Monday. Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt said Tuesday there are ``a lot of questions that need to be answered'' before the Valdez is allowed in. Canadian authorities also asked Exxon for assurances there will be no damage to the British Columbia coast if the tanker is towed to Oregon, and the mayor of Valdez said the ship was not welcome back in the port where it took on the load of crude. In Washington, Environmental Protection Administrator William Reilly said the spill could put the brakes on petroleum exploration there and in other areas. ``We will take apart the environmental planning for every aspect of oil development in Alaska and in other sensitive areas where the environment potentially could be threatened,'' he told a House appropriations subcommittee. The family of the fired Exxon Valdez captain, Joseph Hazelwood, said the skipper wants to surrender but is awaiting advice from his attorney, according to Lt. Thomas Fazio, commander of the New York State Police on Long Island. But after Long Island law enforcement authorities waited a second day for Hazelwood to turn himself in, the Suffolk County district attorney's office announced there would be no surrender that day. Hazelwood, 42, is accused operating the ship while under the influence of alcohol, reckless endangerment and negligent discharge of oil. Bail was previously set in Valdez at $50,000. Of about three dozen oil-soaked otters rescued following the spill, about one-third have died, Alaska Department of Fish and Game spokesman Jon Lyman said. ``Dozens of otters are dying before rescuers can get to them,'' he said. Six otters were flown to Sea World in San Diego on Monday for rehabilitation. Fishermen counting on the sound's $12 million annual herring industry were told Monday by the state that it will not allow a season this year. Sablefish and shrimp fisheries in Prince William waters also have been closed. An effort at Sawmill Bay, 11 miles west of Valdez, to keep oil away from a hatchery where 2 million salmon are waiting to be released to the sea appeared to be failing. Tendrils of oil had floated past a boom streched across the bay, said officials. The spill has shifted public opinion in Alaska about the energy industry, which has been lobbying for new exploration. U.S. Sen. Frank Murkowski, a champion of oil exploration in Alaska, asked that plans for drilling in Bristol Bay, the state's richest fishing grounds, be set aside until the industry can demonstrate that it can respond effectively to spills. ``The Exxon Valdez accident has taught us that simply having a plan is not sufficient,'' the Alaska Republican said. At the first Valdez City Council meeting since the spill, two council members and Mayor John Devens expressed concern that anger and frustration over the spill was surfacing as harrassment of pipeline company workers and their children. Meanwhile, a multimillion-dollar class-action lawsuit was filed Monday in federal court in California against Exxon Corp., charging that the spill has led to gas prices of 10 to 15 cents more a gallon for California drivers.
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