Crude Oil Proves Too Hard For Soviet Ship to Clean Up

A mammoth Soviet vessel helping clean up the Alaskan oil spill cannot handle the hardened, taffy-like crude and is being sent home, authorities said Tuesday.

The high-tech, 425-foot Vaidogubsky, which has been under a $15,000-a-day, monthlong Exxon contract to skim the oil that spilled March 24, did not have its contract renewed.

Exxon and state officials said the ship had difficulty processing the “mousse,” the hardened oil that develops after crude has spent days in the chilly Alaskan waters, buffeted by winds and currents.

“We shouldn’t blame the Russians,” said Bill Rainey, Exxon operations manager. “It was just not the type of oil she was good in.”

Legislation Introduced

Meanwhile, legislation that would require the oil industry to create and train emergency response teams capable of handling an oil spill within five hours was introduced Tuesday in Congress by Rep. James H. Saxton (R-N.J.).

Saxton said the bill would require industry-financed emergency response teams, certified by the Coast Guard and subject to unannounced drills, to be regionally located and “custom-designed for the environment they are assigned to protect.”

Teams would have to be in place by Jan. 1, 1991. Punishment for violations would include fines of up to $1 million. Companies’ chief executive officers would be directly responsible for violations.

Senators responding to the spill also proposed bills Tuesday to toughen liability standards, impose new rules on tankers and subject crew members to random drug and alcohol tests.

The two legislative packages introduced in the Senate would add a 5-cent fee to each barrel of oil moved through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System, increasing from $100 million to $500 million the fund now used to provide immediate money for cleanup operations.

Under one bill offered by Alaska Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank H. Murkowski, both Republicans, the Coast Guard would be allowed to assume immediate control of cleanup work at major oil spills in Prince William Sound, with access to $150 million from the liability fund.

Tankers leaving the environmentally sensitive area also would be required to make advance arrangements to position equipment, personnel and escort vessels in the event of a spill. A tanker also would be required to carry on board enough containment boom material to encircle the ship.

The legislation, along with another bill by Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-La.), also would require drug and alcohol testing for tanker crews. The captain of the Exxon Valdez allegedly was drinking on March 24 when the tanker struck a reef and spilled more than 10 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound.

Under Johnston’s bill, liability for damages would be extended beyond the Trans Alaska Pipeline System to include all North Slope areas. Liability levels would be increased from $100 million to $500 million.

In Alaska, Gov. Steve Cowper cited public sentiment from the spill in signing a bill Monday raising state taxes on the nation’s two largest oil fields, both on Alaska’s North Slope.

Cowper signed the new tax bill after the state Senate approved it by an 11-9 vote. The bill will bring in $235 million in revenue next year and more than $2 billion during the next two decades based on current oil prices.