Talk in Oil Cleanup Turns From Saving Spill Area to Restoring What’s Been Lost

The incessant whir of helicopters and whine of small planes fill the air over Valdez these days, and a sign on the airport terminal door reminds people to remove oily boots before coming inside.

In dingy motel rooms, scientists hunker over computers and squint at walls plastered with maps.

Out on the water, shimmery ribbons and pudding glops of oil still taunt an ever-growing fleet of vessels and experts hired to clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Three weeks after the tanker Exxon Valdez gushed millions of gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, the frantic battle has turned into a weary war. There is no longer talk of whether this fragile environment can be saved, but what can be salvaged.

“We’re entering a new phase, and that’s damage assessment,” said Dr. William Evans, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Our focus in the coming months and years will be to determine what will be necessary to restore or replace the fisheries and other natural resources that have been lost as a result of this spill,” Evans told a news conference after arriving in Valdez on Thursday.

The new phase is one of painstaking detail and bungled bureaucracy, of manpower at its most tedious and machinery at its most sophisticated.

It is the phase where victories are measured by the number of oiled otters scrubbed clean with dish-washing detergent or by the number of feet of containment boom shielding a salmon hatchery.

Severe Effects Expected

Although long-term effects of the spill are expected to be severe, for now, at least, there is a feeling that the oil has taken its best shot.

“We’re not expecting further damage,” said Ed Wieliczkiewicz, public affairs officer here for the U.S. Coast Guard, which is overseeing the spill response.

Despite the armies of manpower and machinery, it is clear that nature so far has done more than man to heal the horrible wound.

Wind and waves have churned the heavy black pool from the Good Friday spill into a thinner, far-flung spatter.

So far, the state has identified more than 3,000 individual beaches or shorelines requiring cleanup, but has evaluated and given the go-ahead for work on only 44.

Assessment of the soiled beaches includes archeological surveys and careful scheduling to avoid heavy activity during mating or reproductive seasons for any of the marine mammals or 30 species of birds in the sound.

The rock-by-rock swabbing Exxon has undertaken at a few of the islands hit by the first thick wave of oil has proven inadequate, and tests involving high-pressure hoses were under way this week.

“I don’t think beach cleanup will return Prince William Sound to its original condition,” said Dennis Kelso, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

“We can only mitigate the damage, not eliminate it,” he added.

Exxon agreed Thursday to put $15 million in escrow for damage assessment alone--a sum Evans described as a mere “down payment” to the state and federal government.

Exxon spokeswoman Jan Cool said no figures were available for the overall cost of the cleanup so far.

And while the company has set no target date to complete the monstrous task, nature has deadlines of her own in this frozen wilderness.

“We have a fairly short opportunity to work in the sound now before the weather changes in August or September,” Kelso said.

“We’ve got this window between now and the end of summer and then, if the work is not completed, it will have to wait until next season,” he said.

But scientists say that the longer the delay, the tougher the job, since the oil is gradually solidifying onshore into hard, asphalt chunks.

Meanwhile, the toll of injured otters and birds is multiplying quickly enough to warrant a second rehabilitation center.

The state Department of Fish and Game estimates that the 250 otters and 1,407 birds reported dead represent only a “minuscule percentage of the animals being lost to this event.”

Biologists say they will never know the full extent of damage. Oiled birds may not die until they’re inland, where their carcasses will provide poisoned picnics for bears and other animals.

Some 11 million waterfowl and shore birds are expected to migrate through Prince William Sound in a few weeks, and the first humpback whales already have been spotted.

Many of the birds will pass over the eastern edge of the sound without encountering the oil--unless Alaska’s fickle spring storms change the direction of the slick.

Since the March 24 disaster, about 40% of the oil has evaporated or dispersed naturally. Barely 8% has been recovered by skimming or burning. The remaining oil appears to be split almost equally between Prince William Sound, the Gulf of Alaska and the shoreline.

A Soviet super-skimmer is expected to arrive in about a week to help vacuum the water’s surface, and Exxon continues to do trial applications of chemical dispersants on small patches of oil.

110 Cleanup Vessels

Altogether, according to Exxon, about 1,000 contractors are working on the cleanup effort. The arsenal also includes 110 vessels and dozens of aircraft.

The sheer scope of the task and the tangled string of state and federal agencies involved has resulted in snarls on virtually a daily basis: equipment being sent to the wrong site, workers idled for hours while waiting for instructions, precious time squandered on official forms or permits or requests.

“Whenever you have a large operation with a number of agencies, there is going to be an opportunity for logistical problems,” conceded Cool.

Kelso puts it more bluntly: “There are lots of ways things can get screwed up.”

Two national consumer organizations urge a boycott of Exxon gasoline. Business, Page 2.