Current Events Watch

Yesterday was the 20^th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill off the Alaskan coastline. Most of us have moved on and never think about the disastrous oil spill that caused horrendous ecological damage. What you should know is this: it is still a giant mess causing ecological damage. It is just not as blatant these days.

You have to, as Greg Palast said, “ Stick your damn hand in it!” When you do stick your hand under the gravel of the beach at Sleepy Bay it will come out covered in black, sticky goo, oil from the Exxon Valdez spill. Yes, it is still there. Maybe it’s not as visibly obvious as it was twenty years ago, but it is still there, nonetheless.

'Doesn't look done to me' was the photographer's comment when he took this photo on Smith Island, Prince William Sound, after the Supreme Court ruled in the Exxon Valdez case in the summer of 2008. (Photo by Dave Janka, July 1, 2008).

Over the last 20 years, significant progress has been made in restoring areas impacted by the spill: permanently protecting crucial habitat; increasing our knowledge of the marine ecosystem; and developing new tools for better management of these vital resources. Yet the area has not fully recovered. In some areas, Exxon Valdez oil still remains and is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill. Some injured species have yet to recover to pre-spill levels. Some species never will.

This was not expected at the time of the spill or even ten years later. In 1999, beaches in the sound appeared clean on the surface. Some subsurface oil had been reported in a few places, but it was expected to decrease over time and most importantly, to have lost its toxicity due to weathering.

At that time, the majority of species injured by the spill were still struggling with low numbers, such as the depressed herring populations, but it was expected that the ecosystem would recover naturally over time. Now, in 2009, as we reach the end of the second decade, many of these areas and species of concern remain. As we learn more, the picture of recovery is more complicated than was first appreciated.

In the weeks following the spill, oil often lay in some of the semi-enclosed bays for days to weeks, going up and down with the tides twice a day. With the daily stranding of the oil in the intertidal zone, some was pulled down into the sediments by the capillary action of the fine sediments beneath the coarse cobbles. The cleanup efforts and natural processes, particularly in the winter, cleaned the oil out of the top 2-3 inches, where oxygen and water can flow, but did little to affect the large patches of oil farther below the surface.

This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4% per year, with only a 5% chance that the rate is as high as 4%. At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely.

I agree with Palast, it’s enough to make you vomit.