"COVERS EARTH" Will the oil spill be replayed?

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SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 1989 The oil spill in Prince William Sound was this country's Chernobyl-one of the worst environmental disasters in history. To judge from past large oil spills, restoration of the once-pristine ecosystem could take at least 15 years. Some animal species may never return. The livelihood of people in the area has been wrecked.

The disaster could have been prevented. Yet the government seems bound to repeat the tragedy. Congress is debating whether to hand over Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil companies. This is the last stretch of Arctic coastline not already open to development.

Furthermore, the oil industryand the government-have their sights set much further. Beaches and fishing grounds from Massachusetts to Washington state, from California to the Gulf of Mexico are under consideration for oil drilling.

Even now, supertankers (carrying 25 percent of the country's oil supplies) ply up and down the coast from Alaska to California. According to Ann Nothoff of the National Resources Defense Council, a disaster on the scale of the one at Prince William Sound could "very likely" happen along the California coast.

"Unlike Prince William Sound," Nothoff told me, "there are no vessel separation lanes off California. Once outside the ports, it's the 'law of the seas."

"The Exxon Valdez," she said, "was the Granddaddy of oil spills as to size. But the amount of environmental damage can depend on many other factors, such as location or the time of year."

Nothoff pointed out that the Apex Houston, a tanker that broke up a couple of years ago off San Francisco Bay, leaked only 616 gallons of oil into the ocean. But since the spill was located near an important rookery, tens of thousands of birds were killed in the incident.

"We don't have the technology to clean up major spills in this region," claims Jane Preskienis, chair of the Sierra Club's Coastal Task Force in Oakland, Calif. "Our technology may be effective in calm waters," she told me, "but not in high seas. And that's what we have off the California coast."

Test of strength

A government task force is discussing plans for oil drilling in California's waters. A memo from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has charged that the Interior Department has "downplayed" the frequency and effects of spills in the area.

I discussed this issue with Kathy Van Velfor of the Central Coast Conservation Center. She pointed out that drilling is planned in a sensitive area between the Farallone Islands wildlife sanctuary and another one on the Monterey Peninsula.

"What is the point of establishing sanctuaries when oil drilling takes place in adjacent areas?" she emphasized. "There will have to be a test of strength between the oil companies and the public."

Oil company officials claim that plans to increase oil drilling off the California coast will pose few risks because the oil will be carried directly to shore through pipelines.

Such claims are "untrue," Ann

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CTION end women's rights.