August 6, 1998
For Immediate Use
For information: Mike Sato, People For Puget Sound (206) 382-7007

(Seattle WA 8/6/98) Fifteen national groups today joined in with state and local governments, state environmental groups, and concerned residents in asking the federal government to require before this winter tug escorts for oil tankers entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

"On behalf of America's national environmental organizations, we urge you to extend mandatory tug escort for all laden oil tankers entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca," the groups wrote in a letter to US Department of Transportation Rodney Slater.

"The glaring gap in protection against the substantial risk of tanker accidents and a major oil spill in the first 70 miles of the Strait of Juan de Fuca requires your urgent action."

The letter marks the six-month anniversary of public hearings held in Seattle by the Transportation Department and Coast Guard on their oil spill risk study. The federal agencies to date have given no indication of how those risks will be lessened before this coming winter's storms.

Signing the letter to Sec. Slater were Alaska Wilderness League, American Oceans Campaign, Center for Marine Conservation, Coast Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, Environmental Working Group, National Audubon Society, National Parks and Conservation Association, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ocean Advocates, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Restore America's Estuaries, Sierra Club, and Surfrider Foundation.

"Mr. Secretary, this is not a parochial or regional matter. You know that a spill in these waters will bring down an unstoppable nationwide and international cry for far-stronger action and for investigation of inaction.

"Neither you, the President, the leaders of the US. Coast Guard or our organizations want a tanker accident in this heavily trafficked waterway to lead to an Exxon Valdez-scale ecological catastrophe in Puget Sound on our 'watch.'"

The national groups join efforts by Senator Patty Murray, Rep. Jack Metcalf, the Makah Tribe, Governor Gary Locke, and local governments in San Juan, Clallam and Jefferson counties, the mayor and city council of Seattle, and environmental groups to extend escort tug requirements to the outer Straits before this winter as an interim measure to be put in place and remain in place until other measures are found to be more cost-effective-- and at least as protective.

Sen. Murray and Rep. Metcalf, in a June letter to the Clinton Administration asking for tug escorts, wrote: "Ultimately, the question is who bears the risk during an interim evaluation period -- the environment and citizens of the Puget Sound area or the oil industry?"

"Given the magnitude of the consequences associated with a major spill in the strait or Puget Sound, the answer should be clear."

The risk is real. In April 1989-- one month after the Prince William Sound disaster-- the Exxon Philadelphia, carrying 23 million gallons of crude oil, bobbed around disabled for five hours at the mouth of the Strait before getting a tug assist.

The shipping industry's voluntary International Tug of Opportunity System (ITOS) works well for timely dispatch of rescue tugs in the inner Sound where there are more working tugs; response for the outer Strait, however, is estimated at up to 12 hours.

"Time is running out if tug escorts or some meaningful vessel assist system is going to be in place before this winter's storms," said People For Puget Sound executive director Kathy Fletcher. "It's now up to the US Department of Transportation and the US Coast Guard to do the right thing that citizens have asked be done."

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