Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's beautiful Prince William Sound. Cordova, a coastal fishing town hit hard by the spill, is home to David Janka. He was there the day of the spill; 25 years later, he shares his thoughts and photos with Audubon Alaska. The photos of lingering oil, taken just last month, are disturbing. They are even more troubling in light of the push to drill in the Arctic Ocean and increase shipping (including tankers) through the Bering Strait (a global Important Bird Area), with their even colder and more remote waters teeming with life.

Spilled oil still lingers just below the surface on some beaches of Prince William Sound.

Everlasting Disaster

by David Janka

On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef spilling at least 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Twenty-five years later recovery is not complete. Lingering oil remains in the shoreline sediments. Some injured species have not returned to their pre-spill conditions. The human and economic toll is still felt.

I was living just 10 miles northwest of Bligh Reef, care-taking a remote lodge with my family, when the Exxon tanker hit. I was on site within 12 hours and began working aboard a contracted response vessel the following day. After becoming frustrated with the response and worried about safety issues, I returned to my previously committed job at the lodge. Since then a variety of activities has kept me all too familiar with this life-changing event: cleanup response, public education, research, environmental advocacy, guiding, and now supplying vessel support for research projects and natural history cruises.

The area that was impacted in 1989, especially the area that still holds oil in its shoreline sediments, is a small part of the vast and dynamically rich marine ecosystem of Prince William Sound. This smaller area of The Sound is remote, in turn, expensive and time consuming to get to. This has helped the oil industry to promote their view that everything is fine, everything is clean. I have felt that taking and sharing photographs, especially those of the lingering oil, is important to counteract this notion and communicate reality.

In 2003 government studies estimated that over 20,000 gallons of crude oil remain in the shoreline sediments of Prince William Sound.

This lingering oil is chemically very similar to samples taken just days after the spill took place. Once the oil hit the shore, some of it soaked into the shoreline gravels and rocks, cutting it off from oxygen. In turn very little weathering has occurred to this oil. It is nearly as toxic as the day it was spilled.

It is not easy to find the lingering oil as the surface of the shoreline is, for the most part, clean of oil and has re-vegetated with a number of algae species. But know the right spot, turn over a rock, or dig a few inches to a foot down, and the smell alone will let you know how nasty it has remained. And it is still bioavailable. Clams and other intertidal critters can be contaminated by living in close proximity to a lingering oil patch and in turn be eaten by birds or small mammals. Sea otters can come in at high tide and inadvertently release and be exposed to the oil directly while digging for food. Similarly, the sea star Pycnopodia is a ferocious digger of pits and could release and be exposed to subsurface oil. Wave action from a major storm can release the oil by stirring up and redistributing the sediments.

The $900 million settlement between Exxon and the State and Federal governments over natural resource damage has been paid, but a re-opener clause is still in the courts. Twenty-five years later and something is still in the courts!?!

The re-opener clause states that if unanticipated damages are found when the 9 years of payments are complete, an additional $100 million dollars is to be paid. Lingering oil fits the "unanticipated damage" definition best. Agency and industry agreed there was oil remaining when cleanup activities halted in 1991 and all felt that Mother Nature would take care of it in a few years. But the $100 million (plus about $35 million in interest) must be spent in direct restoration. Agreement has been difficult on how to do direct restoration. Will more harm be done than good? I do not like the thought of this oil remaining for another 25 years. Maybe longer. It should have been taken care of years ago. What should have been an acute problem is now, and will continue to be, a chronic problem unless something is done. If you had a leaking fuel tank in your back yard or at your gas station, regulatory agencies would have no difficulty in telling you to the point of bankruptcy how to clean it up. But the most profitable entity in the known universe is able to sidestep their responsibility with the blessing of many government agencies.

Fifty years ago, the 1964 Good Friday Alaska earthquake made changes to the landscape of Prince William Sound that can still be seen today. Mining activities left their still visible mark over a century ago. And lingering oil from the 1989 Good Friday Exxon Valdez oil spill will be with us for years to come.

Since 1989, shipping of oil has become safer with the introduction of global positioning systems, automatic identification systems, citizens oversight organizations, satellite communications, on-board monitoring systems, expanded training, secondary power systems, random drug and alcohol testing, escort tugs, and double-hulled tankers. But there is always the human factor. It is the most difficult to control or predict.

The oil spill only impacted a portion of Prince William Sound. The areas that contain lingering oil represent an even smaller area. These areas are recovering and the Sound continues to offer us one of the most beautiful coastal environments in the world.

I hope that sharing photographs of oil remaining from the Exxon Valdez disaster will help as a reminder to be vigilant and not let it happen again. I plan to continue taking and sharing at no cost these “awful, good photos.

David Janka is owner and operator of Auklet Charter Services, a Cordova-based charter boat business supplying vessel support for research, work trips, and media, as well as natural history cruises throughout Prince William Sound. Visit www.auklet.com for more information and to see many beautiful photographs of Prince William Sound.