The Oil Still Polluting Alaska, 20 Years After Exxon Valdez (VIDEO)

The Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in the Prince William Sound on March 24th, 1989. Over the next three days, three-thousand miles of Alaska's coastline were coated with somewhere between 11 and 38 million gallons of crude oil. To give you a point of reference: had the spill occurred off the east coast of the 'Lower 48,' oil would have destroyed coastline from New York Harbor to Cape Canaveral.

All the communities along the coast--which depend on the Sound's fish populations for food, jobs, tourism, and work--were devastated. One such community was Cordova, Alaska where a good friend of mine, Dr. Riki Ott, was working as a commercial "fisherma'am" at the time of the spill. Riki, also a Marine Biologist, has spent the last 20 years of her life fighting for justice from Exxon, working to restore affected communities, and teaching about the dangers of oil and corporate power.

One of the videos she carries with her as she travels the country shows the lasting effects of the Exxon Valdez that still pollute Alaska's beaches today—nearly 20 years after the spill. Riki explained it to me like this, "We take students down to the beach, dig a hole somewhere, and pour water in." This is what that experiment looks like.

Riki's latest venture, as she explains in her book Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, and as you've seen covered here on Huffington, is the 28th Amendment to the Constitution: The Separation of Corporation and State. Exxon would not have been able to evade justice for this devastation had it not had the same protections under the law as individual citizens.

For updates on the 28th Amendment movement, join the Facebook group.

To watch Riki explain her path to Marine Biology and activism, check out this interview.

J.S. McDougall is the head blogger at Chelsea Green -- a news site and book publisher covering the politics and practice of sustainability.

Follow J.S. McDougall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/chelseagreen

Comments

[GoVeg]

Green Baby Green!

[silentreader]

And yet with Katie Couric, Palin could not come up with a Supreme Court case she disagreed with- the Gov. of Alaska could not even name the Supreme Court case decided earlier THIS summer regarding HER state, limiting Alaskans ability to recoup damages from Exxon, despite damage being present 20 years later.

The fact that she can still deny global warming as a man-made problem when evidence of human environmental destruction is sitting right in front of her face with just 1 act of man with the Exxon Valdez affecting such a large portion of the Alaskan environment for 20+ years displays an astounding level of idiocy only capable by Wingnutty, Bible thumping, "Dinosaurs were around 6,000 years ago" Republicans. And this is the best their part can offer???

For once, I can agree politically with the Republican­s...Palin in 2012!!!!

[jake106]

Uhm, actually..­.Palin has repeatedly complained about the Exxon-Mobil decision. She stated in an interview after that Couric interview that she had been taken offguard by the question and had not been able to come up with an answer at the time. (of course, that statement in itself raises its own questions). However, she is on the record as stating before and after the Couric interview that she did not agree with the court decision and that she thought it was a disaster for Alaskans.

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/125961
http://gov.state.ak.us/archive.php?id=699&type=1

And just for good measure, here is a link to some Palin comments about Exxon-Mobil from back in 2007, long before she was on the national scene. Doesn't sound like she was ever a big fan of them
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1216345141.html

[ScoobyDoo269]

But all the judges have Exxon stock - you can't make them pay for the spill.

[Husaria]

Drill baby, drill! Thats sarcasm.

This is why we need to wean ourselves off a petroleum based economy. It damages the earth, it sends our troops into areas they should not be in and it costs us billions of dollars a year. Not to mention the environmental impact when something goes wrong.

Its not sarcasm. Its common sense.

The US as well as other countries has to start making the switch from oil to alternative fuels. Step one would be conservation. Thats something most Americans do not want to hear. I have to take the bus? Are you crazy? Not me. Im not taking the bus!!!

[LetsBeFairHere]

Geez, so don't pour water in a hole. Problem solved. You liberal elites just don't have any sense do ya?

(this sarcasm thing is hard)