SEATTLE -- Seventeen years after the Exxon Valdez caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history, a University of Washington law clinic this month launched a last-ditch effort to collect $100 million on behalf of Alaska Natives whose fishing and hunting still suffers.
A petition calling on the federal government to go after the money was written by Washington law professor Bill Rodgers and law students. The federal Justice and Interior departments must decide by the end of this month whether to pursue the damages, which would come in addition to some $1 billion paid to the state and federal governments by the oil company.
In the spill zone, Natives must travel to the far reaches of Prince William Sound to find unaffected seals to hunt, said Dune Lankard, an Eyak tribal member. Herring have shown up with weird sores, he said, and tribal members have been able to harvest them commercially only three of the 17 years since the spill.
Also, tribal members are uneasy about the health of ducks, other birds and mussels they eat. But they have no choice, because they don't have grocery stores, he said. The word hydrocarbon rolls off Lankard's tongue in a practiced but uneasy way as he discusses Natives' food sources.
"We had a strong, robust fishery prior to that oil spill," said Lankard, a member of the tribe's elders' council. "Now when you go out there, you don't know if any of these (creatures) are safe."
Rodgers, a professor of environmental law, acknowledged that the Natives face a stiff challenge. They are asking the federal government to pursue the money on behalf of the tribes, which are not eligible to pursue it on their own.
"The difficulty is we're like a puppet here. We're not doing any of this directly; we're asking the U.S. to do it for us," he said. The petition was put together at the UW's Berman Environmental Law Clinic.
Unless the state or federal government speaks for the extra $100 million and presents plans for how to use it to restore natural resources -- by June 1 -- the oil company is off the hook.
Additionally, to get the extra money the government would have to show harm that "could not reasonably have been known nor could it be reasonably have been anticipated," under the terms of the 1991 lawsuit settlement resulting from the spill.
Exxon Mobil would consider any request for a reopener in the deal but views the prospects for such a development as unlikely, said Mark Boudreux, Exxon Mobil's media relations manager.
"Prince William Sound is healthy. It's robust. It's thriving," Boudreaux said. "There are no unanticipated harms that were caused by the spill that would not have been anticipated at the time of the (lawsuit) settlement."
Boudreaux said that in addition to the $1 billion paid in settlements to the state and federal government, the company has spent $2.2 billion on cleanup and paid $300 million to Alaskans who could show their livelihoods were damaged.
The company is contesting a $5 billion verdict for punitive damages that has twice been ruled unconstitutional by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Although plaintiffs in that case have cited Exxon's profit last year of $36 billion -- a record, worldwide -- Boudreaux said the company is publicly owned and owes stockholders a duty not to pay an unconstitutional claim.
"Profits are irrelevant to this case," he said. "The case has to do with whether or not we should be punished any more than the $3.5 billion we've already paid for the spill that happened 17 years ago."
A Department of Interior spokesman referred questions to the Department of Justice, which said it would have no comment.
The state of Alaska and the Interior Department are considering whether to pursue the reopener sought by the Alaska Intertribal Council, which represents 180 of Alaska's 226 tribes, and the Chugach Regional Resources Commission, which works on behalf of seven tribes in the affected area.
While environmentalists and some Alaska state legislators have pushed for the state to pursue the additional money, state officials have downplayed the need to do so, Rodgers said. So the Natives are hoping their special relationship with the federal government will prevail.
"Effectively, the last man standing here are the Native groups," he said.
