May says Exxon Valdez spill calls for legislation against oil tankers

By Christine van Reeuwyk – Peninsula News Review

Published: March 25, 2012

Elizabeth May, MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party, hoped to spark interest in the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill with a picturesque press conference Friday morning.

On March 24, 23 years ago, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, Calif., struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound and spilled 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Alaska.

“The life of that ecosystem has not yet recovered,” May said Friday at the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in Sidney. “There is still damage it is being monitored by scientists that the bird life has not returned, that the life of the ocean waters have not been restored to the condition which they were 23 years ago today, on the eve of the Exxon Valdez spill.”

May focused on the spill as a key symbol of why the supertanker moratorium on the B.C. coast must be maintained and strengthened.

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation were on hand for the event and agree that the risk is too high to have tanker traffic in the Salish Sea.

“The Salish Sea is already suffering intense pressures from growth. Chronic oiling and spills will only intensify the declining health of this ecologically fragile region. Further, the tanker route overlays critical habitat for our endangered souther resident killer whales. The Exxon Valdez oil spill fatally impacted two populations of Alaskan killer whales,” said Misty MacDuffee, a Raincoast biologist.

To read the full article please visit the Peninsula News Review website.

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