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CURWOOD: It's Living on Earth. I'm Steve
Curwood. The Valdez oil spill's tenth anniversary is an occasion
for deep reflection in Alaska, and it's revived bitter feelings
that many have toward Exxon. Dr. Frank Sprow is Exxon's Vice President
for Environment and Safety and joins us from Dallas, Texas. Tell
me about March 24, 1989. Is that a date that haunts you folks at
Exxon? I think in Alaska they use this phrase, "the day that the
water died." How did you feel that your
company was responsible for this?
SPROW: Well, I think you used a key word
and that's responsible. I heard about the spill on the radio, and
when I got home and saw some of the video on television, I think
it was a shocking sight. And when you realize that it was our oil
and that we spilled it, that's a tough thing to stomach. You certainly
knew that not only the environment but people's lives were going
to be strongly affected by this. And so I think if anything, you
get a real resolve to do what you can to try to make it better.
CURWOOD: What do your experts say about
when or if the region will be back to normal?
SPROW: By and large we see Prince William
Sound as a healthy, robust, thriving biological community. The majority
of species there are in good shape. Those that were affected by
the spill. You can have acute, short-term effects, as we did in
this spill. But the environment has remarkable powers of recovery,
and rather straightforwardly and quickly re-establishes itself and
the biological communities that are there.
CURWOOD: What about the Trustee Council
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration? They have
looked at this and they say that only 2 out of 11 key species, in
their view, are fully recovered. How do you respond to those comments
from the Trustee Council and NOAA?
SPROW: The problem, Steve, if you want to
call it that, relates to the use of the phrase "recovery." The definition
of recovery that some use is a return to 1989 conditions. Unfortunately,
for most species, we don't know what their 1989 populations were.
And perhaps even more importantly, the natural variability of changes
in the Sound is such that you can't take a snapshot and expect at
some future date for things to be as they were then. Our definition
tends to be more in line with thinking biologically. Do we have
a healthy biological system? Are the species that should be in the
Sound there? Are they reproducing effectively? Do they have an adequate
food supply? And on that measure we see the Sound as having essentially
recovered.
CURWOOD: Let's talk about money for a moment.
So far Exxon spent about 2-and-a-half billion dollars in cleanup
costs and another billion dollars with your out of court settlement
with the state and Federal governments. You've also been ordered
to pay another $5 billion in punitive damages to thousands of Alaskans,
but your company is appealing this verdict. Can you tell me why,
please?
SPROW: Before I do that, Steve, I might
mention that there's one element of cost which you left out, and
that's the over $300 million which we immediately paid to those
damaged by the spill. We worked with people to find out who were
going to lose their fishing incomes, for example, and immediately
paid those people for their loss of income, and in many cases also
paid them for the use of their fishing boats and their own time
and services to assist in the cleanup. So it was a lot of money
paid to compensate for damages suffered in the spill. The punitive
damages that you mention we think are totally inappropriate.
CURWOOD: So, Exxon should not be punished
for this.
SPROW: I think that what we have done is
the responsible thing, in terms of the cleanup, the largest cleanup
operation that's ever been taken on in the US. And the concept of
punitive damages is just something that we think is wholly inappropriate
for this situation.
CURWOOD: We've been hearing from people
about the enduring lessons of the Valdez spill. And I'm wondering
Dr. Sprow, if you'd just take a moment to tell us what you think
is the lesson that has been learned by Exxon.
SPROW: That an ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure. That's an old phrase, but if there were any disbelievers
that that's a very accurate statement, they disappeared 10 years
ago.
CURWOOD: I want to thank you for joining
us. Dr. Frank Sprow is Vice President for Environment and Safety
at the Exxon Corporation.
SPROW: Thanks very much for the opportunity
to talk to you, Steve.
(Music up and under)
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