Exxon ruling like a bad dream for subsistence users

ALEX DeMARBAN

July 03, 2008 at 1:20PM AKST

Reaction among Alaska Natives to the Supreme Court’s decision to slash damages in the Exxon Valdez case to $507.5 million ranged from bitter disappointment to relief — however bittersweet — that it’s over.

Cordova resident Patience Andersen Faulkner, president of a group representing Prince William Sound communities affected by the oil industry, lay down in bed after she heard the news early Wednesday morning, June 25.

“I felt sick, physically sick. After a half an hour, I said I’m OK, I’m not going to throw up here, I’ll be OK,” she said.

To her and other Alaska Native plaintiffs who expect to collect money for their subsistence claim, the damages don’t come close to recouping what was lost.

About 4,500 subsistence users from the Sound to Kodiak and Chignik Lagoon on the Alaska Peninsula will split about $22.5 million of the award, said Lloyd Miller, attorney for those plaintiffs.   

That’s $5,000 per person.

Interest will roughly double that average, Miller said.  

Individuals from the most impacted communities, such as Tatitlek and Chenega Bay in the Sound, will get the largest payouts, because they were the closest villages to the grounded tanker at Bligh Reef.  

About 20 tribal governments representing the subsistence users will split about $2.5 million, said Faulkner, a former legal technician with the litigation team for the plaintiffs.

The subsistence class was one of 53 groups that made claims in the lawsuit, she said.

Faulkner, who is Chugach Aleut, said the money won’t be enough. The greatest tragedy of the massive 1989 spill is how it changed the closeness of the region’s Alaska Native families, she said.

The sprawling slick devastated subsistence foods such as seal, clams and herring, ending or sharply reducing social activities such as the seal-butchering and clam-gathering that involved friends and family.

“I don’t drag anyone along with me to the grocery store, so you miss that camaraderie and the health checks on each other, the children learning from their grandmother,” she said. “That’s where the largest damage is. It makes us too much individuals and not enough togetherness.”

Some subsistence foods haven’t returned, such as herring, at least not in significant numbers, Faulkner said. And residents are still reluctant to eat some of the foods, including mussels from the Sound, fearing they may be polluted.

Losing those foods was more than just socially destructive. It was a huge financial blow.   

Despite the slashed award, Faulkner felt more thankful than angry. She paid close attention over the years as Exxon Mobil Corp. made gains. The oil giant’s lawyers persuaded courts to reduce the original, jury-set punitive damage award of $5 billion in 1994 to $2.5 billion in 2006.    

“The bottom line is I’m relieved it’s over because I don’t know how much more I could have taken,” she said.

Chenega Bay’s tribal government won’t end up with much, said Pete Kompkoff, president.

“Like a slap in the face to us,” Kompkoff said.

After the spill, Kompkoff could see the oil sheen from his windows. The damage forced him to sell his boats and get out of fishing.

Last week, no one in the village of 80 was happy about the Supreme Court ruling.     

“People are just devastated by the amount it was reduced,” he said.

Bob Henrichs, president of the Eyak tribal government in Cordova, first heard about the spill when returning from the Lower 48 in his crab boat. After entering the Sound through Hinchinbrook Entrance, he was some 30 miles from Bligh Reef when he smelled oil.   

“It smelled like shellac,” he said. “I knew we were in trouble.”

Henrichs owned two tender boats that delivered fish to processors. He said he ended up selling them because fishing prices dropped – in part from perceptions that the oil had tainted seafood.

Herring and king crab fisheries have also been closed since the spill.

“It meant the loss of our culture and our way of life,” he said.

Last week, he said he had no idea what the tribal government could expect as part of its subsistence claim.  

“I haven’t thought about it,” he said. “Exxon has not been at the head of my priority list. I got better things to do with my life.”

Alex DeMarban can be reached at (907) 348-2444 or (800) 770-9830, ext. 444.