EXXON VALDEZ TO RETURN TO SERVICE THIS SUMMER

By DAVID SEDENO
The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO- The ship that caused the nation's worst oil spill when it ran aground in Alaska waters last year will be returned to service later this summer, officials said Thursday.

Repair work on the Exxon Valdez is nearing completion and Exxon Shipping Co. President Gus Elmer is expected today to announce plans for returning the tanker to service.

A Coast Guard inspector, however, said the ship is scheduled to start a twoweek trial run on July 20 to test its systems and obtain certification as a seaworthy vessel.

The Valdez spilled almost 11 million gallons of oil when it struck a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989, sullying hundreds of miles of coastline and killing wildlife.

Former Exxon Shipping Co. President Frank Iarossi acknowledged concerns that the ship's association with the environmental disaster may make it unwelcome in Alaska ports when he said last summer that the tanker might be renamed and possibly put to work somewhere besides the Pacific Ocean.

Since then, however, Exxon officials have kept secret where the vessel will sail once it is repaired and whether it will bear the Valdez name.

Exxon spokeswoman Janet Cool said Elmer would answer those questions today. She said the ship would return to service this summer, but probably not this month.

"I don't think it will be sailing before August," she said.

Fred Hallett, a spokesman for National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., where the ship was built in 1986, said the $30 million repair job on the tanker is nearly complete.

"The ship's ready. She's going smoothly," Hallett said. "We're finishing the painting on it right now and we're doing some work in the machinery room."

The 987 foot long ship will be floated out of the dry dock for a trial run to determine if NASSCO will need to make any refinements, Hallett said.

"The float out preparations will take 24 hours and the last of that will be letting the water in and floating the ship off the blocks. After we are sure she is all set, we will pull the gate with a crane," he said.

"Taking her out of the dock is bread and butter work for the workers. The problem in getting her in was how to support her with the bottom missing."

Coast Guard inspector Lt. Bill Uberti said NASSCO is scheduled to flood its dry dock on July 20 and take the Valdez out for two weeks of trial runs. Uberti said he will be aboard the ship part of that time to certify it as seaworthy.

"They'll test all the systems out and we'll ride her a couple of days and that will be it," Uberti said.

"If there's a problem, they'll have to fix it before it can go out into service, but I don't anticipate any problems. The only damage to the ship was structurally, and that's all been fixed."

Every ship gets a new certificate of inspection every two years. The Valdez's certificate doesn't expire until the end of the year, but Exxon officials decided to renew the certificate early, Uberti said.

Repairs on the Valdez began last August after the 30,000 ton ship was maneuvered into a graving dock, which had less than 2 feet of clearance on each side.

The tanker was placed on supports and hydraulic shorings while workers tore out the mangled steel of the single hulled ship and replaced it with 3,000 tons of new, inch thick steel.

A couple of boulders that lodged in the tanker when it ran aground were removed and after being examined by parties in the spill litigation, were released to Exxon. The company sent the rocks, one of which was the size of small car, to a construction site where they were ground up.

Exxon officials declined to retrofit the ship with a double hull because it was not feasible from an engineering standpoint, Exxon spokeswoman Carrie Chasin said in March.

But Hallett said a double hull could have been put on the ship during the repair work.

"It's feasible to put a double hull," he said. "The question is the cost and the time."

In January, Exxon Shipping Co. paid a $1,000 fine to settle a pollution claim by the Coast Guard. The dispute arose from a pair of slicks and the spillage of about 356 gallons of oil as the ship awaited clearance to enter San Diego Bay.

The company denied any wrongdoing and Exxon officials said then that the discharges from the ship were comprised of "organic" material that washed free from cargo holds when the tanker was towed 2,500 miles from Alaska to San Diego.

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