The Nation - News from June 7, 1989

Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper, beginning a tourism promotion tour to allay fears that his state’s coastline is awash in oil, said in Seattle that nearly all of Alaska’s attractions are untouched by the nation’s worst oil spill. In the first stop on a multi-state tour, Cowper urged tourists not to cancel their summer plans to visit the 50th state because of the March 24 Exxon Valdez spill. Cowper said only 2% of the state’s beaches were touched by oil and noted Alaska has more coastline--47,300 miles--than the rest of the nation combined. Even in Prince William Sound, where the tanker ran aground, spilling about 11 million gallons of oil, only 5% of the beaches are tainted by oil.