Exxon Officials Offer New Cleanup Plan

Exxon officials Monday released a revised plan for cleansing 364 miles of Alaskan coastline fouled by the nation’s largest oil spill, but they said their proposal requires a suspension of local environmental laws to allow recovered sludge to be burned or buried.

The plan makes no provisions for continuing the cleanup beyond mid-September and notes that 191 miles of lightly oiled coastline may not be cleaned mechanically but instead may be left to be washed naturally by the environment.

“We are going to have to take a hard look at that,” responded Bill Lamoreaux, the ranking state environmental official monitoring the cleanup.

Since March 24, when an Exxon tanker struck a reef outside Valdez and poured more than 11 million gallons of North Slope crude into Prince William Sound, Exxon has financed cleanup crews fighting the spreading sludge. Signs of the spill have been sighted about 500 miles southwest of Valdez.