Oil Remains on One-Third of Alaska Shores Soiled by Spill

Oil remains on one-third of the Alaskan shores soiled in the Exxon Valdez disaster nearly 15 months after the nation’s worst oil spill, according to a newly completed survey of 1,215 miles of coastline.

Most of the beaches that still have crude on them are lightly oiled, according to a shoreline status report at a Tuesday night oil spill cleanup operations meeting.

“Shorelines are being cleaned, and I really mean it,” said Coast Guard Rear Adm. David Ciancaglini, the federal on-scene coordinator.

Exxon also painted a generally glowing picture of cleanup operations now in full swing for a second summer, mopping up the mess left by 11 million gallons of crude that washed up on Alaska beaches when the tanker Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, in the nation’s worst oil spill.

But amid the night’s routine reports on cleanup work, scientific tests, wildlife and fishing, a Kodiak Island official lashed out at Exxon for doing a bad job.

While Exxon’s Randy Buckley was reciting company cleanup efforts, Wayne Coleman, the Kodiak Island Borough government spill response administrator, launched a loud attack against Exxon for resuming the Kodiak Island cleanup late and conducting “a very, very poor operation.”