Daily Sitka Sentinel from Sitka, Alaska • Page 1

Member of the Associated Press A I I Monday, October 23,1989 Volume 51 No. 217 Sitka Alaska 35c State A.G. Criticizes federal Spill Council By BRIAN S.AKRE Associated Press Writer JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) Decisions that will affect haw Prince William Sound is restored are being made by anonymous federal officials who are ignoring the state's interests, Alaska Attorney General Douglas Baily says. At issue is the Trustee Council, a group of government trustees charged under federal law with determining the damages from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The assessment eventually will be used to de- how much Exxon Corp.

must pay to restore the environment. The trustees are the federal secretaries of Interior, Agriculture and 'Commence, and a stale representative, Commissioner Don Collinsworth of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Baily said Friday that the trustee is not working as intended 'under federal law. The trustees have yet to meet, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency appears to have assumed control, he said.

Gov. Steve Cowper, in a letter sent two months ago to the EPA Administrator William Reilly, said the state has "independent standing" under federal law in assessing the damage and restoring its resources. Cowper rejected Reilly's offer to have Collinsworth serve as vice-cha- riman of a restoration-planning panel headed by the EPA. "The state must preserve its independence and deterministic standing with regard to our resources," the governor wrote. Baily said Bush administration officials, stung by criticism of their initial reaction to the spill, have ignored the state's position and are trying to dominate the assessment and restoration process.

"They want to use the state's money to do it and then lake credit for it," he said. A group of and state scien-. lists and bureaucrats have been working on the assessment and related-studies. They report to the trustees. "Their decisions have regularly been overturned once they get back to the policy-making people back in Washington," Baily said.

"They'll be rewritten in Washington by parties unknown." The council staff has held several meetings in Washington without enough notice to permit state representatives to attend, Baily said. The council also has not named a chairman, or "lead trustee." "We're still under the direction of a headless horseperson and nobody has final say, so nobody's accountable," he said. "There has been an inordinate amount of time spent Irying to figure out where we are and to keep track of what other people are doing at meetings where we are not invited," Baily said. Bob Walker, an Interior Department spokesman in Washington, said the federal trustees have met several times with the EPA's Reilly, and that the state has declined to participate. Baily disagreed.

"I don't know that there's ever been a meeting of the trustees, period," he said. "I have never heard that they have ever sat down in the same room on this topic." Walker said the federal government wants to work with the state, but he noted that state officials refused to sign the agreement establishing the council in April. "We weren't satisfied with it," Baily said. "One of the main reasons was it didn't assign the lead trustee. It doesn't comply with the law." Baily said the state insisted on having Collinsworth named the lead trustee because Alaska has the most at stake, but most of the federal officials disagreed.

Walker acknowledged the dispute was over power. "The feeling of several of the trustees was that they could not operate that way, that they would be yielding authority they could not yield," he said. Baily said that while the state and federal in the field ate work- recommendations are being ignored. For example, the staff recently recommended a three-year budget to fund its research, but officials in Washington limited it to a year without consulting the state, Bai-, lysaid. "Many times a report goes back to Continued on Page 8 Sitka School Receives Counseling Pilot Grant Newspaper: DEC Ignored Spill Warning ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -The slate Department of Environmental Conservation for more than a decade before the Exxon Valdez oil spill ignored warnings from its staff and failed to make oil companies prepare for a major spill in Prince William Sound, an Anchorage newspaper reported Sunday.

In a copyright story, the Anchorage Daily News said agency staff members, some Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. workers and others warned a catastrophe was likely if Alyeska was not ordered to upgrade is equipment and teach cleanup workers their jobs. Yet the agency's administrators did little to force Alyeska to improve, and every agency administration since oil started flowing in 1977 has been ineffectual against Alyeska, the newspaper concluded. Alyeska, the consortium of seven oil companies that owns the pipeline and Valdez terminal, cannot legally operate without state approval of a plan to deal with oil spills in Port Valdez and Prince William Sound. But the DEC never moved to withhold its approval as a way of forcing the company to improve its oil-spill response, the newspaper reported.

Alyeska says that indicates the state agency was satisfied with its plan and performance, the newspaper said. As a result, the agency effectively ignored the danger posed by the giant oil tankers, and, critics say, shares the blame for the March 24 spill. The tanker Exxon Valdez, maneuvering to avoid ice, smashed into Bligh Reef about 25 miles from Alyeska's shipping terminal, spilling about 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil. It was the nation's worst oil spill. "The adjective that most come to mind when I think of DEC is spineless," said Patti Saunders, a verteran environmental lawyer.

"There is this perception about how powerful (the. oil companies) are and DEC 'is not willing to tackle them." The tanker fleet has spilled small amounts of oil in Prince William Sound more than 400 times in the past dozen years, so DEC officials have had ample time to assess the Alyeska's spill preparations. In addition, Alyeska conducts periodic drills for its crews and equipment, the Daily News reported. In simulated spills and real ones, the DEC has watched Alyeska in action and repeatedly found the company's efforts barely adequate, or worse. Continued on Page 8 Clinging to the Past Children find the Prospector statue on the Pioneers Home lawn makes a good place to hang out.

The youngsters were waiting out Alaska Day events last week. (Sentinel photo by Allen Sykora) By Sentinel Staff Sitka High School has been selected as one of seven sites in the state to test a hew approach to counseling that would expand and broaden the effectiveness of school advisors. Sitka High School counselor Rod Poole said the school will receive $5,000 from the Office of Adult and Vocational Education of the Alaska Department of Education (DOE). The money will fund the writing of new policies and guidelines for the program by Poole, Principal Lee Deiri- mert and Counselor Linda Selvig. The three Sitka educators are to travel to Sqldotna this week for a training session with Dr.

Norm Gys- ber, an expert in the field of school counseling, Southeast Regional Resource Center (SERRC) spokeswoman Heidi Rocheleau has announced. SERRC coordinated the program. 1 Poole says the pilot program to be implemented in the schools uses a four-tier approach to counseling. Traditional counseling deals with students planning employment or further education and those considered at-risk for dropping out. The pilot program will add a curriculum component, a responsive services component and a component of system support, Poole said.

The curriculum component, said Poole, would have counselors target specific problems areas of a student, and then hold "mini-unit" classes or workshops for parents and students. Responsive services refer to the counseling of students in the midst of a crisis. System support refers to training for counselors and teachers, community public relations and special outreach to parents, he said. Poole said participants hope the pilot program will lead to guidelines that can be used by counselors throughout the state to make counseling programs more cohesive. Poole was a member of a statewide task force on counseling which has been lobbying for counseling to be available to students of grade ley- els, he said.

He said the legislature funded a full-time counseling coordinator for DOE, who, once hired, should help standardize various local programs. AFN Votes to Target Drug, Alcohol Abuse Sitka Child Struck by Truck Improving in Seattle Hospital By Sentinel Staff J- The six-year-old Sitka girl injured Oct. 3 when run over by the front wheel of a dump truck was described by her mother today as in stable condition and on the mend in Children's Hospital in Seattle. Bonnie Hendrickson was struck by the slow-moving truck as she rah into Halibut Point Road near Sollars Trailer Court, where she lived. Reached today at Children's Hospital, Becky Hendrickson, Bonnie's mother, said her daughter was "just getting settled in" to her new room after being transferred from Harborview Medical Center, Bonnie was medivaced to Harborview the evening of the accident after initial treatment at Sitka Community Hospital.

Mrs. Hendrickson said doctors be- lieve the girl will eventually regain the full use of both of her legs. She can already wiggle her toes, her mother said. Bonnie's pelvic bones were crushed in the accident and she is presently able to sit in a wheel chair for only a couple of hours per day, Mrs. Hendrickson said.

She said Bonnie will be able to begin physical therapy in about a month. The girl has been in surgery four times since the accident. Mrs. Hendrickson said the entire family has benefitted by the "community outpouring of prayers and support" received since Bonnie was injured. She said Bonnie was especially thrilled to receive greetings from her first grade teacher and classmates.

ANCHORAGE (AP) The Alaska Federation of Natives on Saturday endorsed several resolutions intended to fight substance abuse, including one that urges major air carriers to stop transporting alcohol to communities that prohibit its importation. Another resolution the AFN passed near the end of its three-day convention urges native groups and individuals to cancel contracts or advertisements with businesses that "promote or are involved in drug abuse, alcohol abuse and family The AFN also called for the recrim- inalization of marijuana. Under a state privacy law, Alaskans legally can possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use in the home. The resolutions, among dozens on issues ranging from land allotments to housing, are the latest steps in natives' surging campaign to cut substance abuse in their communities. Some locations suffer staggering levels of alcohol-and drug-related deaths, violence and physical and emotional disorders.

Alaska leads the nation in the incidence of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which appears in the babies of women who drink during pregnancy. F.S. Reports on Spiked Trees KETCHIKAN (AP) The U.S. Forest Service says its investigation indicates at least two people were involved in tree spiking that occurred August about 30 miles north of here. Four agents have been investigating the insertion of metal spikes in some Tongass National Forest trees near a road construction area.

Loggers could have been injured if their chainsaws had struck the spikes. The Forest Service said the people who sabotaged the trees apparently were local residents with first-hand knowledge of the area and the road project. Many native communities have voted to ban alcohol or to prohibit its sale. Bootlegging is a problem, particularly in communities where alcohol can be possessed for personal use but cannot be sold. Alcohol ordered from Anchorage or elsewhere often is flown to villages by commercial air carriers.

"There are more problems in the villages today than when I first traveled through them as a United 'States senator," Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told the convention Saturday in remarks centered around the substance-abuse problem. He said various federal programs have been funded to help fight drug and alcohol abuse in rural Alaska, but "money is not going to solve the problem." He urged village elders to set an example and to teach younger natives about the perils of abuse. "You are revered in your communities," Stevens said. "You elders and parents are the role models of the future members of the AFN." Stevens, recognized in an AFN resolution commending his work on behalf of natives, also said government agencies' efforts to fight substance abuse divert money from other critical health-care needs in villages.

Caring For a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome child over a period of years costs the government $1 million, he said. With the thawing of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, Stevens said, natives face bright opportunities for exchanges and enterprise across the Bering Strait that divides Alaska and the Soviet Far East. "What will we export to them?" he 1 The resolutions supported by the convention delegates eventually will be used to lobby state and federal officials for more cooperation in meeting the needs of Alaska natives, said Robert Clark, a Bristol Bay Native Corp. board member and executive director of the Bristol Bay Area Health Corp. Although resolutions such as the one against shipping of alcohol are advisory, he said, they can have an impact.

"Whether it's formal or informal, the effect is going to be felt," Clark said. Air-service operators who expect to prosper in rural Alaska will follow the wishes of the people they serve, he said. Also on Saturday, the AFN elected Ralph Eluska as the organization's chairman to succeed co-chairmen Mary Jane Fate and Henry Ivanoff. Eluska represents the Kodiak area and lives in Anchorage. Walter Soboleff of Angoon received the 1989 Citizen of the Year Award, which also went posthumously to Robert Newlin of Noorvik.

Soboleff is a Tlingit elder and education consultant. He is the president and chief executive officer of Kootznoowoo the Angoon village corporation. Newlin was chairman of NANA Regional Corp. from its inception until his death July 2. He held a number of other positions, including service as the Noorvik mayor and as a member of the Northwest Arctic Borough Assembly.

Baton Twirlers to Form Non-Profit Organization By Sentinel Staff The Sitka baton twirler group plans to form a non-profit organization and keep the activity going, a parent involved in the new effort said today. Ann-Marie Madsen, who was chosen as president of the executive board, said about two dozen parents of twirlers met Sunday and decided to organize as a non-profit corporation. The board is to meet tonight to continue to work but details. Other officers are Mike Binkie, vice president; Carolyn Evans, secretary; and Sherry Schauwecker, treasurer. The twirlers program formerly was part of Sitka Community School, but withdrew from that program in a dispute over the fee structure.

Sitka Twirlers Director Nancy McGuire said the group will not have any connection with Community School, but will seek the help of other community groups. Madsen said the National Guard offered the use of its Sawmill Creek Road armory for practices, and Ihe Loyal Order of the Moose has donated $2,000 to help the group get launched, and has also offered to help find practice space. Use of school facilities would be $10 an hour for a minimum of 25 hours a month, McGuire said. Fees would have to be raised from the current $15 a month, she said, adding that the group plans to offer scholarships to those who need ihem. McGuire said practices will again in November for the 50 or so twirlers who were in the organization when activities were suspended recently.

She plans to teach three one-hour classes a week, and her teen-age assistants, her daughter, April, and Jenny Tatum are to teach two each. She said the organization would consider new members later in the year. McGuire said she anticipated the group would be smaller than in past years, when more than 70 twirlers participated in the program..