Alaska Pipeline Spill Debate

"State, federal and oil company officials said the total amount of oil spilled is still not known, but they discounted claims by an oil industry critic that the spill was much larger than BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is saying. Industry critic Chuck Hamel, said he learned from onsite personnel that the spill volume is closer to 798,000 gallons, which would make it the second largest oil spill in Alaska, second only to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of 11 million gallons in Prince William Sound."

It would appear that this most recent accident comes as no shock to some onsite employees of BP Alaska who have been working toward opening up a dialogue on safetey and environmental issues surrounding drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve for quite some time.