After 3 Summers, Exxon Valdez Cleanup Effort Is Winding Down

After three summers, the cleanup of the nation’s worst oil spill is winding down.

Workers wrapped up most summer cleanup tasks over the weekend, and have left the shores of Prince William Sound, officials said.

“It’s over, although I’ve been wary of saying we or anybody else can declare victory over the oil spill,” said Ernie Piper, the state’s cleanup coordinator.

This year, five crews totaling about 60 people worked at more than 100 shore sites in the sound, Kodiak Island and the Kenai Peninsula. Thousands of beach workers scoured the blackened shores in 1989, followed by hundreds in 1990.

Exxon has spent about $2.5 billion on the cleanup.

“The cleanup went well this summer,” Piper said. “But I haven’t been happy since March 24, 1989.”

On that day, the tanker Exxon Valdez ran onto a charted reef and spilled nearly 11 million gallons of heavy crude oil, creating an environmental nightmare. Thousands of birds, marine mammals and fish died.

Workers cleaned what they could and left the rest for nature to handle.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Coast Guard and Exxon contract employees will keep helicopters in the area to handle oil “hot spots” should that be necessary later this summer.

The state, with help from the Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will monitor about 200 sites where there is subsurface oil.