Alyeska’s Apology Gets Cool Reception : Public relations: The oil consortium apologized in ads for its probe of suspected whistle-blowers and an industry critic, but one environmental group is upset.

In unprecedented full-page newspaper ads over the weekend, the operator of the trans-Alaska pipeline apologized to Alaskans for its undercover investigation of suspected whistle-blowers and a longtime industry critic.

But the apology failed to mollify the company’s opponents, who have stepped up the outcry against Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a consortium of seven major oil companies that runs the 800-mile pipeline:

* On Monday, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), whose House committee is investigating Alyeska’s actions, will ask for permission to subpoena documents that the firm has refused to hand over. The committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider the request. Alyeska has already turned over several boxes of papers.

* Trustees for Alaska, an environmental group that was targeted by the Alyeska investigation, rejected the apology and called for full disclosure of Alyeska’s findings. The group fears that Alyeska may have obtained documents pertaining to a lawsuit it filed against the company arising from the 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.

Alyeska spokeswoman Marnie Isaacs, admitting that investigators searched the group’s garbage, said the company would cooperate with the group but declined to discuss details.

* On Friday, a citizens oversight group grilled Alyeska President James B. Hermiller about the 1990 investigation in a meeting in Cordova, Alaska, described by one participant as “tense.”

In particular, Christopher Gates, president of the Regional Citizens’ Advisory Council, blasted Hermiller about a report that Alyeska’s investigation targeted council member Stan Stephens, who operates a Valdez tour-boat charter.

Isaacs denied that Stephens was targeted while he was a council member, though she was unsure if he was investigated before then. In any case, Hermiller gave assurances that no council member would be targeted.

At issue is an investigation launched at Alyeska’s behest in 1990 by Wackenhut Corp. of Coral Gables, Fla., that singled out former oil tanker broker Charles Hamel, a longtime company critic, and Hamel’s sources of internal company documents.

Documents provided by Hamel to Miller’s committee and regulators resulted in disclosure of environmental hazards at Alyeska facilities and forced the company to spend millions of dollars to repair its systems, Hamel’s supporters say.

Alyeska said the probe was meant merely to identify the source of leaks of proprietary documents, but sworn statements by former Wackenhut employees say it was intended to silence and discredit Hamel and other critics.

The statements and interviews with former Wackenhut employees describe electronic surveillance, deceptions, midnight searches of garbage and pilfering of documents from Hamel’s Virginia home by investigators.

In ads that ran Saturday in Alaska’s eight major daily newspapers and that are scheduled to run this week in eight more weekly papers, Hermiller said:

“The investigation, taken as a whole, does not meet the standards Alyeska strives for and Alaskans expect. Alyeska values its good relationship with Alaskans, and I am sorry if I have put that relationship in jeopardy.”

If Alyeska had it to do over again, it would not, he acknowledged.

In the ads, Hermiller maintained that Alyeska instructed Wackenhut to use “legal methods and standard investigative practices” and denied that the investigation was intended to “interfere with anyone’s communications with Congress or to investigate any member of Congress.” Former Wackenhut employees have said the probe was aimed in part at Miller.

Hermiller also said that Alyeska’s owner companies--including Atlantic Richfield Co. of Los Angeles--were not informed of the investigation until after it started and that they and Hermiller ultimately concluded that it was wrong and should be stopped.

Randall M. Weiner, executive director of Trustees, called the apology “inadequate.” He added: “We’ve ordered a shredder, which we’d like to bill Alyeska for.”