Exxon Refuses to Fund More Spill Studies, Panel Is Told

Exxon is refusing a government request for $20 million toward the cost of assessing damage from its massive oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound last year, a House subcommittee was told Tuesday.

Studies of the long-term effects from the 1989 spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound cost $35 million last year. Shortly after the spill by the tanker Exxon Valdez, the oil company put up $15 million. Last January, trustees in charge of the continuing assessment asked for the remaining $20 million.

With continuing studies expected to cost another $30 million this year, the company is refusing the request to pay last year’s balance on grounds that it hasn’t been given results of the federal and state studies or an accounting of how its first $15 million was spent.

“The process has not worked as Exxon anticipated,” C. M. Harrison, its executive vice president, told the House subcommittee on water, power, and offshore energy resources. He said the interagency trustees told Exxon that government attorneys are “restricting the flow of information and data and are advising the trustees and agencies not to work cooperatively with Exxon.”

Government officials in return complain that Exxon has refused to share its research data with state and federal authorities.

Heading into the second year of a cleanup that has already cost it more than $1 billion, the company is under a federal criminal indictment that could bring fines totaling $700 million.

So far more than 1,000 sea otters, 35,000 waterfowl, 150 bald eagles, and other animals from deer to whales are known to have died as a result of oil fouling the sound and hundreds of miles of its shoreline.

But environmentalists insisted that the real impact is still unknown.

“These carcasses represent only the most obvious impacts of the spill,” Erik D. Olson of the National Wildlife Federation told the subcommittee. “They are only the tip of the iceberg.

“The more subtle and insidious impacts are more difficult and expensive to measure than the collection of otter and bird carcasses. The entire food web of the affected areas of Prince William Sound, Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and many bays and estuaries along the Alaska Peninsula have been seriously disrupted.”

Exxon voluntarily put up the first $15 million. But Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. characterized that as a first step and put Exxon on notice that further payment would be expected. A spokesman for Lujan said Tuesday the Interior Department would hold the company responsible for continuing to finance the damage assessment and will go to court if necessary to collect additional payments.

However, notes of a March meeting of the panel of trustees responsible for the assessment showed that the Justice Department advised the panel it “should not expect further money from Exxon.”

The notes also showed that Justice Department officials considered a proposed settlement agreed to by Exxon, but vetoed by Alaska, “a very good offer.” Under that proposal, which was never implemented, Exxon would have paid up to $500 million in fines to avoid criminal prosecution.

The trustees panel is composed of Lujan, Agriculture Secretary Clayton L. Yeutter, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief John A. Knauss, and Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Don W. Collingsworth.

Compounding the problem of Exxon’s refusal to provide additional payments for the studies is the fact that the Bush Administration included no funds for this year’s work in its fiscal 1991 budget. Officials of the Interior and Agriculture departments and NOAA said they will “re-program” funds from other activities to support studies planned for the coming months.

Representatives of environmental organizations testifying at the hearing Tuesday expressed concern that the trustees have agreed to discontinue 24 of 63 studies initiated in the spill area last year. With Exxon balking and no Administration funds targeted for the continuing assessment, they urged Congress to step in with an appropriation to assure that investigations continue.

“Congress should immediately mandate and appropriate sufficient funds to pay for the next two years of damage studies,” Olson told the panel. “This will guarantee that critical data are not lost and that the spillers are held responsible for the full extent of damages.”

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the subcommittee chairman, several times expressed concern that the litigation growing from the disaster has now taken precedence over the damage assessment and the recovery of the environment of the sound. He said scientific information is being withheld for use in the criminal and civil proceedings in court.

“I am concerned,” he said, “that litigation is beginning to overwhelm the public interest.”