Feb. 2, 2009
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: 20 Years Later
CBS Evening News: Examining How One Alaska Community Is Coping With Disaster’s Lingering Economic Consequences
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Play CBS Video Video Exxon Valdez Still Makes Mess Almost 20 years after the Exxon Valdez disaster, the effects are still felt, not only in an environmental sense, but in the community. As Byron Pitts reports, some fear they'll never recover.
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Tugboats pull the crippled tanker Exxon Valdez towards Naked Island in Prince William Sound after its crash in 1989. (AP)
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A sea otter swims in Valdez harbor in Prince William Sound, Alaska, April 4, 1989. (AP)
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That was then. This is now. "My current financial situation is terrible," Platt says, "It's terrible."
He still earns his living fishing. But today Platt is deep in dept. He's waiting on a check he will never cash.
"My net worth is negative right now," he says. "Negative."
Platt is one of the 32,000 original plaintiffs in a lawsuit against corporate giant Exxon Mobil following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, reports CBS News chief national correspondent Byron Pitts.
Eleven million gallons of oil spilled along 1,300 miles of Alaskan coastline. The fishing industry was devastated. It was the worse disaster of its kind in U.S. history.
Back in 1989, Exxon executives, including Don Cornett, promised to take care of everyone affected by the spill.
“You have my word we will make you whole again," he said at the time.
In 1989, fishermen like Platt were hired to help clean up the spill. He made nearly $600,000 that year.
In total, Exxon spent more than $3.8 billion in clean up costs, fines and compensation. But in 1994, an Anchorage jury found Exxon acted recklessly and awarded victims of the spill $5 billion in punitive damages. An appeals court later cut that award in half.
But after nearly 15 years in appeals, the case finally reached the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The justices reduced that $2.5 billion in punitive damages to just more than $507 million.
Platt's share of the settlement is expected to be close to $400,000. But he still owes the state of Alaska $600,000 for his commercial fishing licenses. So his check will go straight to the state. But here's the kicker: he has to pay the taxes on it.
"A lot of people aren't going to make it," warns Platt.
At least 6,000 of the original plaintiffs have died, and 8,000 plaintiffs have liens on their settlements - ranging from child support to back taxes.
“I think that's been Exxon's strategy every step of the way - to wear everybody down,” says Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. "They've succeeded in fatiguing those who were entitled to this compensation."
Osa Schultz and her husband got their checks last month of more than $50,000. They are still in debt.
"We always expected that the settlement would make a big difference and bring us back," she says. "It didn't even come close."
Shultz testified before Congress last year about the corrupting influences she says big business has on the political and legal system.
Shultz warned officials that, “Exxon's vast power and influence has tipped the scales of justice. For nearly a generation our community has been the David to their Goliath.”
For its part, Exxon Mobil declined a CBS News request for an interview, instead issuing this statement saying in part, "The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a tragic accident and one which the company deeply regrets."
Nearly 20 years later the legal battles are not over. Both sides are awaiting an appeals court decision to see if Exxon Mobil has to pay interest on the $507 million award. That decision could come as soon as this month.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 33 Commentshref=http://thesqueegeeman.com/squeegeeman_016.htm> Environment Friendly </a>and can do a better job of soaking up the spilled oil they will also hold on to the Absorbed oil and not let it leach back out to kill our birds and other wildlife & ruin the environment
http://www.silenceinthesound.com/valdez-oil-spill-workers-vs-exxon.shtml
The real story: In 1989, while media and public attention focused on the thousands of oil-coated dead seabirds, otters, and other wildlife, little attention was given to the harm done to the cleanup workers. As workers blasted oiled beaches, with hot seawater from high pressure hoses, they were engulfed in toxic fumes containing aerosolized crude oil%u2014benzene and other volatile compounds, oil mist, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
The cleanup workers from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill are suffering from long-term health problems resulting from toxic chemical exposures. A significant number of the workers have died. Some of the illnesses include neurological impairment, chronic respiratory disease, leukemia, lymphoma, brain tumors, liver damage, and blood diseases.
Silence in the Sound by Merle Savage.
Sound Truth & Corporate Myth$ and Not One Drop, by Dr. Riki Ott. Dr. Ott has investigated, and studied the oil spill spraying, and quotes numerous reports in her books, on the toxic chemicals that were used during the 1989 Prince William Sound oily beach cleanup.
The Black Wave, tells the story about Dr. Ott''s investigations and the interviews of sick workers suffering from the toxic chemicals used during the cleanup. The film is available for preview.
20 years and they haven''t settled? And they made a RECORD $45 Billion in PROFIT this year?
SHAME ON EXXONMOBIL!
These people are human''s enemy.
They should re-open this lawsuit and force them to pay what they do owe...
Posted by ddaryl1
The supreme court is as guilty as the drunken captain. they deserve to eat my shi.t juices.
Posted by mrs_bun
Go get your family to dig their heads in to the oil spills then tell me if it''s good, stupid head.
They should re-open this lawsuit and force them to pay what they do owe...
Posted by mrs_bun
You can''t be that stupid....just looking for a little fun this morning to stir things up aren''t you? Nice try juvenile!
Posted by kooooks
Here is a person who presumably read the article and has followed the story of the Exxon scandal. Yet, in spite of all this, he/she is still able to be critical of those who are disgusted with the corruption of our democracy. "Entitlement", it''s amazing you actually used that word in this discussion. You are a totally out of touch, moron with as much compassion for fellow humans and the environment as a cockroach devouring it''s young - aka decaying republican.
Exxon Mobil the most evil of corporations could care less about human and environmental life - see, Nigeria
Posted by dthomas5010
Add that to the amount they''ve spent on lawyers, they probably could have paid off the original judgement.
The judge who cut the settlement amount is a coward and a **** poor advocate of the laws for the people by the people.This judge should be hung with his robe from the second story window of the courthouse.what a pispoor excuse for a human.
Posted by usanative1
The guilty party was a 5-3 decision from the USSC. Alito was recused for owning Exxon stock, otherwise it would have been 6-3.
Another Republican oil man from Texas, George Bush the first.
As it was allowed to run through the courts it ended under the watch of another Republican silver spooned president. George Bush the second.
And the battle cry of the Republicans in the last campaign? "DRILL BABY DRILL!"
The majority of them along with Rush and Hannity? Scum, just like the oil that can still be found from Exxon''s botched cleanup efforts.
No one begrudges others to make a good living. But when businesses perform at the exclusion of morals and good ethics in their business plans, then the citizenry and our government should take them down.
As an American, I feel powerless to correct the bad deeds of Corporate-America. I don''t have the $$$ and resources to purchase influence with members of the House and Senate not to exclude the judges of the various courts.
I live in the South (Georgia) but I suffer in support of the Alaskan fishermen and all my fellow citizens of our country where Corporate-America bullies us. The coal sludge poisoning in the Tennessee rivers and valleys is another recent, prime example. What can we do? Conduct another Boston Tea Party?
I wish I had the $$$ to PURCHASE Senators, House Representatives, judges, and the necessary lawyers so that they would serve the American citizenry instead of fattening the wallets of the few. I would spend that money not for my gain but, to provide justice for all.
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