Abstract:
Exxon salvage crews successfully refloated the stricken tanker Exxon Valdez after nearly 1M barrels of oil were pumped to smaller tankers and air was forced into the Valdez tanks. Clean-up from the spill continued as the oil slick was estimated to affect an area the size of Delaware. Alaska Governor Cowper said the coast Guard could better handle the clean-up than Exxon. James Hazelwood, captain of the Valdez, who had been found to be legally drunk and was fired by Exxon, surrendered to police in a Long Island suburb of New York City. Released on $500,000 bail he may not waive extradition to Alaska.
Introduction:
Exxon salvage crews successfully refloated the stricken tanker Exxon Valdez on 
Wednesday as the former captain of the vessel surrendered to authorities in New 
York to face criminal charges in the massive oil spill. 

Joseph Hazelwood, 42, surrendered to police in a Long Island suburb of New York 
City and hours later Judge Kenneth Rohl set bail at $500,000 -- 10 times what 
Alaskan authorities had sought. 

Hazelwood's lawyer said he had not decided whether to waive extradition 
proceedings and return to Alaska to face the charges; Hazelwood was not 
required to enter a plea Wednesday. 


Fired by Exxon 

After the Exxon Valdez ran aground on March 24, Hazelwood was found to be 
legally drunk and was fired by Exxon. Hazelwood left Alaska before local 
authorities could interview him, and had been pursued since Saturday on a 
fugitive warrant on three misdemeanor charges: operating a watercraft while 
intoxicated, reckless endangerment and negligent discharge of oil at sea. 

Together, those three charges have a maximum penalty of 27 months in prison and 
a $10,000 fine. 

"These misdemeanors are of such a magnitude that has never been equaled, at 
least in this country," Rohl said. "We have a man-made destruction that has not 
been equaled, probably, since Hiroshima." 

FBI officials in Washington say they also are investigating whether Hazelwood 
could be charged with felony violations of the Clean Water Act, which prohibits 
negligent discharge of pollutants into navigable waters. 

No people have been killed or even seriously injured by the spill, but oil has 
seriously disrupted the rich Prince William Sound fishing industry. Also, 
animal-rescue teams estimate the spill has killed several thousand birds and 
hundreds of sea otters. 

Estimates of wildlife deaths are not easy to make because oiled birds are hard 
to spot from the air, and many beaches are difficult to reach for in person 
inspections. 

In the wildlife-rich sound, cleanup crews continued to skim emulsified oil as 
thick as pudding. As of Wednesday, 12 days after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, 
the 240,000-barrel slick was estimated to affect an area the size of Delaware, 
and Exxon's fleet of oil-skimming boats had picked up only about 5% of the 
spilled oil. 

The state of Alaska condemned Exxon's cleanup on Wednesday and asked the Coast 
Guard to take over the effort. Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), a senior member 
of the House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee added during a tour of 
Prince William Sound that fraud "is not too strong a word to describe Exxon's 
cleanup claims." 

"What they are really doing is managing the failure," Miller said after meeting 
with Aleut Indian residents in the tiny fishing village of Chenega Bay. 

Alaska Gov. Steve Cowper said the Coast Guard should be better able to handle 
coordination and management of the cleanup than Exxon, which he said was too 
bureaucratic. 

"Maybe that's been the problem all along. You need a military system to get 
things done," the governor said. 

Although Cowper said he did not want to be "extremely critical" of Exxon, a 
letter sent to the Coast Guard by a state environmental official said Exxon had 
been unresponsive. 

"Exxon has failed to provide . . . the information necessary to make sound 
planning recommendations regarding the cleanup of oil and the protection of 
resources," wrote Lynn Kent, chief of the state Oil and Hazardous Substance 
Spill Response Section. 

President Bush earlier had sent a team of high-level officials to Valdez and 
determined that federal management of the cleanup was not necessary. Rear Adm. 
Edward Nelson Jr., commander of the Coast Guard's 17th District in Juneau had 
no immediate reply to Cowper's request. 

Exxon spokesman Henry Beathard said the company disagreed with charges it was 
not handling the cleanup properly and thought Exxon was the best organization 
to manage the effort. 

"We gathered all the resources and organized the cleanup. We think the most 
effective and efficient way to carry out this project is (for Exxon) to 
continue," Beathard said. 

The tanker refloat went unexpectedly well. The 987-foot ship lifted off the 
reef three hours earlier than the Exxon salvage crew predicted, proceeding 
without problem under close watch of a flotilla of six tugs and other support 
craft, including the Coast Guard Cutter Rush, to a cove on uninhabited Naked 
Island 25 miles to the southwest, where repairs will be made. 

Even though a relatively well-known salvage technique was used to float the 
Valdez -- using compressed air to force water out of the ruptured hold and thus 
assist high tide in lifting the vessel off the rocks -- "we couldn't predict 
this by the exact hour or minute," said salvage coordinator Gary Gorski, who 
supervised from the ferry Glacier Queen II. 

Almost 1 million barrels of oil were pumped from the Exxon Valdez to three 
smaller tankers over the last 11 days, and the salvage process began as soon as 
the last of the tankers left for Southern California refineries on Tuesday. The 
ship was made airtight above the water line, and then, on Wednesday, compressed 
air was forced inside. 

The air forced out some of the 998,000 barrels of sea water that had been 
pumped into the stricken tanker as oil was removed. 

Naval architect Richard Smith, hired by Exxon, estimated before the refloat 
that the pressure would force enough water out of the hull to lift the ship at 
least three feet. He added that this technique also would produce a pressurized 
buffer of clean sea water between the oil left in the tanker -- about 15,000 to 
20,000 barrels -- and the once-pristine waters off Valdez. 

Even so, Exxon officials warned in advance that refloating the ship could 
uncover additional oil that had been pinned in pockets between the ship's hull 
and rocky Bligh Reef. 

The Port of Valdez was closed at 10 a.m. to clear the iceberg-dotted waters of 
other vessels as the refloating was attempted and Coast Guard spokesman Bruce 
Pimental said that the vital oil terminal would remain closed until the 
stricken tanker was safely anchored. 

However, flow through the Alaskan pipeline returned to its normal daily flow of 
2.1 million barrels Wednesday, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said. Oil flow 
from the North Slope had been cut by 60% because the spill restricted tanker 
traffic in Valdez harbor, but traffic has increased. 

Gorski said that the ease with which the refloat was accomplished may indicate 
that the damage, while severe, may not be as bad as earlier feared. 

Exxon officials were reluctant to estimate how long temporary repairs would 
take or discuss where the tanker would be taken to permanently patch its hull 
and rebuild its internal pumping system, which also was compromised in the 
accident. 

Portland, Ore., was the company's first choice, but it backed away from that 
option after Oregon Gov. Neil E. Goldschmidt and managers of the Port of 
Portland expressed concern that the Exxon Valdez would still be leaking oil 
when it arrived there. 

Already under attack by Gov. Cowper for fouling Prince William Sound, Exxon 
said it would consider having the tanker repaired in the Far East -- Japan, 
Korea or Singapore. 

Even as it made that concession, the company denied its ship would endanger any 
port it visited for repair. 

Staff writer Larry B. Stammer in Valdez contributed to this report. 

