Oral History of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

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The council has produced a comprehensive oral history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, published on the 20th anniversary, March 24, 2009. The title is “The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster.” This book, 288 pages in length, features interviews with over 60 people who experienced the spill first-hand. They include Alaska citizens; government agency personnel involved with the spill and cleanup; elected officials who dealt with the spill; and oil industry personnel involved in the spill and cleanup. It will also include a full-color insert of historical photographs of the Exxon Valdez spill and cleanup. The council hopes to follow “The Spill” in approximately a year with a second volume analyzing the lessons in oil spill impacts, prevention, and response to be drawn from this wealth of personal experience. The interviews were conducted by Homer-based writer Sharon Bushell, a long-time Alaskan perhaps best known for her profiles of the state's pioneers and other residents in the "We Alaskans" series. The Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 was the largest tanker oil spill in the history of North America. It did great harm to the environment of Prince William Sound and adjoining waters and to the commercial fishing industry in those waters. It also created great social and economic strains in communities on Prince William Sound and adjoining waters. “The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster” is now available and can be purchased through Epicenter Press or through Amazon.com.

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Here is a preview of some of the quotes from

“The Spill: Personal Stories from the Exxon Valdez Disaster.”

Frank Iarossi President, Exxon Shipping: “I really didn’t want to tell people how hopeless it was, as far as getting the oil off the water anytime soon.”	Otto Harrison Exxon cleanup manager: “As much as Alaska is a place, it is an idea, and that idea was damaged.”
Charles Wohlforth Reporter, Anchorage Daily News: “Our civilization had no notion of our ability to destroy and our inability to fix it.”	Anne Castellina National Park Service, Seward: “Exxon had a lot of Inipo; (a dispersant) We said, ‘You’re going to spray this stuff, which we know is cancer-causing, all over the beaches and we’re not supposed to be worried about that?’ We wouldn’t let them do it.”
Elenore McMullen Port Graham: “I went down on the beach and looked around, and the mussels had all died. I’d touch them and they’d fall off the rocks.”	Joe Hazelwood Captain of the Exxon Valdez: “I would like to offer an apology, a very heartfelt apology, to the people of Alaska.”

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