Study shows lingering Exxon Valdez oil |
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Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:18
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFX) - Lingering crude from the nation's largest oil spill has dissipated only slightly almost 18 years after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and fouled hundreds of miles of Alaskan shoreline, a new federal study concludes.The estimated 85 tons of oil remaining at Prince William Sound is declining by about 4 percent per year and even more slowly in the Gulf of Alaska, according to research chemist Jeffrey Short with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.At that rate of decline, oil could persist for decades below the surface of some beaches along the gulf, the report says.The findings are to be published in the Feb. 15 edition of Environmental Science & Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.'Such persistence can pose a contact hazard to intertidally foraging sea otters, sea ducks, and shorebirds, create a chronic source of low-level contamination ... and degrade the wilderness character of protected lands,' the researchers wrote in their conclusion.The Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council, a watchdog group, helped pay for the study, but the researchers said their findings and conclusions were not influenced by that sponsorship.Exxon Mobil Corp. spokesman Mark Boudreaux said the company's Valdez team was reviewing the report. He supplied an earlier statement from Exxon that more than 350 independent studies have found no evidence of significant long-term impact from the spill.The Exxon Valdez ran aground March 24, 1989, emptying 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. The spill contaminated more than 1,200 miles of shoreline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine animals.Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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