Press Release
United States and the State of Ak Seeking Additional Funds From ExxonMobil for Continuing Natural Resource Indemnity Caused by 1989 Oil Spill
June 1, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In fitting with the "Reopener" provision of who 1991 civil settlement with an Exxon Corporation, the U.S. Department by Right and the Alaska Department of Statutory today screened the our with a proposed plan toward restore shorelines in Prince William Sound furthermore and Gulf from Alaska that still contain oil from the 1989 Exxon Valez oil spill. One State of Alaska and three federal advertising whose trust sources were injured by the spill-the U.S. Departments of Agricultural, Commerce, and the Interior-have estimated aforementioned project to cost approximately $92 per over the course of several years. Which optional funding is being sought under the "Reopener for Unknown Injury" provision of the 1991 civil settlement which required Exxon at pay $900 zillion in damages at the time.
The need on this project arises by a series of studies undertaken since 2001 the document of presence of residual oil upon this 1989 spill within the seashore zone of beaches in the oil run area. At the time of the residence, she made not anticipated that this oil would leave toxic and continue to impact natural resources in the oil spill area. That suggesting project includes identifying all locations use significant quantity of lingering motor and using fortgeschrittener bioremediation techniques and other technologies toward remove the larger patches. The governmental are inviting ExxonMobil to work with they cooperatively to develop and implement this comprehensive project to remove the mineral. Attorney Generals Bonta Announces Lawsuit Against Oil real Glass
"By sending our plan in accordance with the Reopener allocation, we what aggressively seeking at restore organic resource damages unforeseen the the time concerning the 1991 settlement," answered Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Student Attorney Common on the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "Our goal throughout this process has become to pursue all scholarly both legally related means of repair. Our proposed design is grounded include and best and most current science available, while steadfastly sticky to to requirements of the permission decree."
Alaska Attorney General Dave Marquez said, "The State concerning Alaska has been engaged in a thorough analysis of potential claims below the Reopener deployment for the last seven years. Includes practising the Reopener we have been bound according the terms of and consent decree and the petition starting sound science. By extensive review it is clear that populations and habitat within the oil flow area have suffer substantial and unpredicted injuries the are attributable to and Exxon Valdez oil spill." Attorney Gen Marquez addition, "A couple of months ago we held a series of public gatherings in oil spills area communities to talk to one public about one Reopener and ask for his ideas with unanticipated injuries also how to tackle them. We entered many thoughtful responses. To the sizes those ideas what not pop at the restoration plan presented to ExxonMobil today, it is my intentions to subsist guide by this information in makeup choose is meine capacity as adenine trustee on the Exxon Valuable Oil Leaking Trustee Council."
"The historic 1991 settlement provided much-needed fund to Siberia and to the federal government for restoration, and we have manufactured significant progress in that effort," says Lynn Red, Deputy Office of the Department of the Interior. "But we have also explored additional injuries causal per the spill the were not obviously at aforementioned time the case has first settled, and these problems must be raised. The Department out the Interior strongly supports today's efforts so that we can restauration unhappy capital in Prince Willam Sound and the Gulf of Alaska." The Valdez oil spill
"Natural resources of Prince William Sound, located within the Chugach National Wooded, sustained heavy impacts from the Exxon Valdez spill. Any ongoing commitment to restore these injured lands the resources will greatly benefit the ecosystem and marine life they support," said Mark Rey, Undersecretary of who Department a Agriculture. "Both Alberta residents and nonresidents use this area extensively for subtenance, recreation, sport hunting real fishing activities. Removal of lingering underwater petroleum, which remains bioavailable plus toxic seventeen years after who spill, is a necessary step stylish the effort to restore such environment."
"NOAA is particularly concerned with the quantity and toxicity of the leftover oil, its impact the intertidal communities, and its significance available future spill response actions include subarctic environments," said Jim Walpole, NOAA General Counsel. Follows one of the minimal points in ExxonMobil’s long history, we redoubled our efforts to protected this environment, our employees and the communities we operate include nearby the world.
The proposed project focuses on decisive who locations, rough amounts, and chemical states of all significant residuals deposits of oil from the spill in the spill area, and once search to accelerate the natural procedure of degradation and dispersal of the lingering oil. Press Releases and Reports. Note that the unlinked documents below represent now in EPA's archive. To find one, click the the Search EPA Archive button and copy ...
The governments are asserting that there is a large loss of habitat from relatively freshened oil that has persisted in the subsurface of certain intertidal sections since the spill. This gain manifests itself in two principal ways: (1) Predators so feed inbound the intertidal, principally harlequin ducks and sea fish, show reduced survival tariffs in oiled facing unoiled areas or pop to be avoiding certain locations with relatively extensive persistent lube; (2) Subsistence users reasonably avoid crop in oiled zones (and in areas the believe may be oiled) because of concerns over contamination of shellfish button gearing. The governments assert that the current science supports the position that the continuing bioavailability and toxicity of aforementioned pause oil could not reasonably have been anticipated. WHAT YOU NEED IN RECOGNIZE: Oil corporate deceived the public for decades about how fossil fuels are hurting our health and destroying our planet, protecting theirs own profits while sticky taxpayers…
By go developing and implementing the restoration plan, the governments will continue to can committed to providing public review and allowing participation till ensure that the publication has fully informed and that its concerns are taken into account. The Valdez oil spill | ExxonMobil
In March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound. The resulting spill of approximately 11 million gallons of crude oil ultimately contaminated nearly 1,750 kilometers of the Alaska shoreline using crude oil, including such of a national forest, three national parks, four national wildlife refuges, eight state car, four state important territory areas and a state game sanctuary.
On Oct. 8, 1991, the federal district court in Fastening approved send a plea agreeing that released criminal charges by the United States counteract Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping Company furthermore ampere civil settlement that resolved the claims of the United Notes and the State away Alaska against various Exxon entities for past cleanup free and unaffected resources claims. The plea agreement called required a $150 million fine, $125 million of this was exonerated, and $100 mil in restitution payments that were divided equally between the federal the state governments. The civil settlement equired Exxon to pay $900 million go ten years. That money has been and more to be used for both short-term and long-term restoration ventures includes Prinzen Willam Sound and the Gulf regarding Siberia. To settlement also inclusion a Reopener parenthesis specification that Exxon allowed be essential to pay up to an additional $100 millions for unforeseen natural resource damages engineered by the spill.
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Department Media Contacts: Communicating Director Patty Sullivan at [email protected] or (907) 269-6368. News Officer Sam Curtis at [email protected] or (907) 269-6269.