John Devens, Sr, executive director of the council from 1998 to 2009, passed away at his home in Copper Center, Alaska on June 13.
Devens was the mayor of Valdez when the Exxon Valdez tanker hit Bligh Reef, spilling 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound.
Devens headed the “Oiled Mayors,” a group of elected officials from Exxon Valdez-affected communities that banded together after the spill.
Iver Malutin, former council board member representing the Kodiak Village Mayors Association, passed away June 25 at the age of 82.
Malutin was on the council board from May 2008 until he resigned from the board in January 2013.
In addition to the citizens’ council, Malutin volunteered on a number of other boards and commissions, including an appointment by Governor Frank Murkowski to the Alaska Commission on Aging, where he worked to promote collaboration between stakeholder agencies to improve health care services for Alaska’s elderly. Other volunteer positions included advisory boards and committees for fisheries, subsistence lifestyle, Kodiak, and Native Alaskan traditions.
This past June brought visitors to Alaska to learn about the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Raewyn Bennett and Elaine Tapsell, elders of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand, came to look for information and best practices or guidance that might be useful to them in the aftermath of their own oil spill off the coast of New Zealand in 2011.
The cargo tanker Rena ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef in October 2011, releasing over 350 tonnes (approximately 110,000 gallons) of fuel oil and shipping containers into New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. The Astrolabe Reef, known to the Maori as “Otaiti,” is considered sacred by the Maori, and they are concerned about a potential plan to leave the submerged portion of the wreckage on the reef.
The council recently partnered with the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Oral History Program to create an online oral history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Visitors to the Project Jukebox website can access video, audio, and written resources that offer a rich understanding of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The stories of twenty people who experienced the spill firsthand have been recorded talking about the impact the spill had on their lives and on the environment, the cleanup response, the long-term effects of the spill, and changes in the oil industry since 1989.