A line of violent storms pounded Prince William Sound Saturday, kicking up 6-foot swells and scuttling aerial re-connaisance of America's worst oil spill.
Cleanup work halted on Smith Island, where Exxon is in a race with nature to decontaminate the shoreline's rocky coves and inlets vital to the survival of the sound's sizable sea lion population."There's nothing going up and nothing going out," said Bill Lamor-eaux, on-the-scene coordinator for the state of Alaska. "This is the kind of weather we feared, and the reason why it was so important to take advantage of the good days."
But Exxon didn't. On Day 31 after the March 24 rupture of the Exxon Valdez and loss of 10.1 million gallons into one of the nation's most ecologically sensitive regions, the company has yet to deliver on its promised beach cleanup. Saturday was scheduled to be D-day, but the weather shut down most activities with the exception of locating equipment.
An emergency meeting of the Interagency Shoreline Committee Friday night urged Exxon to move quickly to wash down beaches in four critical seal-breeding areas: Applegate Rock, Seal, Green and Smith islands - all located immediately southwest of the reef where Exxon Valdez ran aground.
"These are major haul-out areas," said Lamoreaux, "areas in which the entire sound's (sea lion) population begins pupping."
But the newborns, perhaps 3,000 in the next few weeks, cannot survive when their sensitive skin is coated in oil. Moreover some of the heaviest stained beaches are also critical birthing, or haul-out, areas. The sound supports a sea lion population of more than 16,000.
The shoreline committee gave Exxon until May 10 to hit the endangered islands.
Exxon reported it had collected 2,502 barrels from water skimming Friday. The company now operates more than 50 vessels including 37 skimmers from the port of Valdez to near Kodiak, 300 miles away.
But Lamoreaux said he was cautious about using Exxon data.
"About 80 percent of the oil collected in mousse (weathered and thick) form is water," he said. "There is also considerable debris. The percentage of pure crude being recovered is relatively small."
Exxon reports up to 50 percent of the spill, now covering an area the size of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined, has simply disappeared, emulsifying with water or evaporating.
Also Saturday, the super Soviet skimmer Vaydagh-ubsky completed rigging booms and began skimming near Gore Point, which holds the heaviest concentration of oil outside of the sound.