Oil Spill Off Alaska Shore
Who will hold Exxon accountable for the worst tanker spill in the history of our country? Who will be asking the questions to find out why this catastrophe happened? In your report on the grounding you noted that there were 20 people (crew members) aboard the ship (Part I, March 25). This is fully 20% fewer people than on comparable U.S. vessels.
In the last year Exxon has taken deliberate and extreme steps to reduce the size of the crews on its tankers and placed the burden for the safe operation of its ships on fewer and fewer people. Is anyone asking Exxon the wisdom of its decision to reduce crew size, saving one or two hundred thousand dollars a year on a multimillion-dollar operation, if one of the consequences is to increase the probability of the kind of catastrophe we are now witnessing?
JOSEPH F. BAKER
Long Beach
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