Oil spill cleanup: `This is war' // Exxon hit; slick threatens another park

VALDEZ, Alaska (AP) The Exxon oil slick was spotted just offanother national park Friday as state and federal officials blastedthe giant corporation's "entirely inadequate" cleanup and declared,"This is a war."

A 40-square-mile slick was reported three miles from CapeDouglas in Katmai National Park, park spokesman John Quinley said.Oil continued to wash ashore along the coast at nearby Kenai FjordsNational Park, he said.

Katmai, on the mainland west of the Kodiak islands, is 250 milessouthwest of Bligh Reef, where the Exxon Valdez went aground March24.

Bruce Erickson, an environmental engineer for the stateEnvironmental Conservation Department, said oil churned into a thickmousse by waves was sighted at Shuyak Island, and an oil sheen wasoff Afognak Island.

Officials fear lucrative crab, salmon, herring and otherfisheries around the islands may be destroyed by the spill.

The oil could threaten Kamishak Bay, a major herring fisherynorth of Cape Douglas, and the mouth of the McNeil River, which feedsthe bay, Quinley said. The river is a game sanctuary that attractsphotographers from around the world to take pictures of brown bearsfeeding on salmon.

Earlier reports had placed the oil only as far south as theBarren Islands, the northernmost in the Kodiak archipelago and aprime breeding habitat for seabirds.

Dennis Kelso, commissioner of the Environmental ConservationDepartment, said his department has been left on standby three weeksafter the 10.1 million-gallon spill. Officials are awaiting Exxon'splan to clean 3,000 shore sites.

"No plan has been submitted," Kelso said. "I do not think thereis a written plan."

Gov. Steve Cowper and Coast Guard Commandant Paul Yost returnedto survey the hundreds of miles of twisting, oily coastline. Yostset a deadline of today for Exxon to produce a cleanup plan for thespill, which officials said was not breaking up as fast as they hadhoped. Authorities said they probably would have to usehigh-pressure hot water spray to cleanse many beaches, acontroversial technique because it kills organisms on and beneath thesurface of the beach.

"This is a war," Yost said.

"Don't look for a miracle on beach cleaning," he said. "We needhundreds of people, maybe multihundreds, maybe multithousands."

Cowper, who arrived Friday wearing faded jeans and rubber boots,said he was pleased Yost had taken over command of the cleanup.

"We were not satisfied with the way the operation was beingcoordinated," he said. "I think it's obvious that we, the state andthe Coast Guard, are not satisfied with the way Exxon has performed."

Exxon had good intentions, he said, but "good intentions andgood performance are two separate items."

Cowper led loud denunciations of Exxon by state officials lastweek, threatening even to shut down the trans-Alaska oil pipeline.But officials had been more muted this week until Kelso's latestcomments.

"We've been frustrated by the in-the-water cleanup. We don'twant to see that replicated on the shoreline," Kelso said, callingExxon's efforts "entirely inadequate."

Added Yost: "I'm not satisfied with the beach cleanup program.I want a lot of people on the beach cleaning up."

Exxon officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Earlier, officials had placed the lead section of the spill atthe Barren Islands, said Larry Dietrich, the director ofenvironmental quality for the Environmental Conservation Department.

Recent storms broke up the slick less than officials hoped, hesaid.

"We're concerned that it's holding together," Dietrich said. "Idon't think it's dispersing as well as people had hoped that itmight."

Thousands of sea birds and mammals have died in the oily muck,and there are fears for the rich fisheries in Prince William Sound.But damage has been greatest on the oiled beaches. Of the 3,000separate cleanup areas on islands in Prince William Sound, 44 areready for cleanup crews, Kelso said.

Workers are already at a few beaches, shoveling up oil, scrapingrocks and using low-pressure hoses to flush the oil back into thewater where it is trapped and recovered.

A consensus is building to clean the shores with jets ofhigh-pressure hot water and steam, Dietrich said.

But he said, "It's going to be difficult to launch a cleanupeffort on the beaches until the floating product is removed."

The total oil recovered so far was about 9 percent of the spill,or 882,000 gallons, Deitrich said, with some of the remainingmaterial having the consistency of asphalt.

Cowper said it isn't known whether the steam-cleaning machineswill work in Alaska's rugged wilderness because fresh water was usedin previous operations, and crews in Prince William Sound will beusing salt water.