Exxon called for a celebration to mark the end of the massive Alaska oil spill cleanup, which still had two days to go Wednesday, but Alaska said Exxon caused too many people pain and an uncertain future for any celebration.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Clyde Robbins, treading cautiously on middle ground between the constantly squabbling oil company and state of Alaska, said that in his opinion Exxon met its goal of treating oily shoreline but that the cleanup was not complete.Robbins said Exxon should return in the spring to finish the job.
As far as Exxon is concerned, the cleanup is essentially finished as crews work the final three-quarters of a mile of soiled shoreline on several islands.
Two top Exxon cleanup officials - general manager Otto Harrison and operations manager Bill Rainey - announced publicly at a crowded Valdez Civic Center meeting that they felt a "sense of celebration."
They offered self-congratulatory statements about the company's summer cleanup of nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil that poured out of the grounded Exxon Valdez almost six months ago, coating 1,100 miles of shoreline.
"Bill Rainey and Otto Harrison refer to a sense of celebration. I appreciate the progress made so far," said Dennis Kelso, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. "For us it is not a time for celebration, but a time for reflection."
Robbins commended Exxon for its efforts but said, "There are still miles that were heavily oiled and aren't clean."
Kelso said, "We want the shoreline to be clean. It doesn't do us any good if Exxon isn't successful."
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Otters find homes
The last 13 otter pups rounded up after the Exxon Valdez oil spill six months ago have been shipped from Alaska to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, Wash.
The otters arrived Tuesday and were to spend up to three months at Point Defiance before being sent to zoos and aquariums around the United States, said associate zoo director Lily Moore.
She said the otters cannot be released in the wild because they have become too accustomed to people.