November 5, 2004

A Big Oil Spill, by Any Measure

To the Editor:

The media continue to use the figure of 11 million gallons of spilled oil from the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1989 ("Slippery Science," The Chronicle, September 24). This is a back-of-the-napkin estimate by an Exxon representative, made shortly after the spill.

Riki Ott did some research on this topic and concluded that 30 million gallons was a much more accurate estimate (see http://www.akaction.net/soundtruths22.html for her report). State records indicate that

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