Last Days Limbo for The Exxon Valdez

The world’s most infamous ship Exxon Valdez set a final course to India to be dismantled.

But environmentalists there have moved to block its entry into the country.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Mark Magnier of the Los Angeles Times.

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Marco Werman: Hi, I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. You’ve probably never heard of the ship called the Oriental Nicety, but you probably do remember its former name, the Exxon Valdez. The Exxon Valdez ran aground and dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989. Since then, the ship has been repaired, sold and renamed more than a half dozen times and now finally, it’s headed for the scrap heap, but still not without controversy. Environmentalists in India have gone to court to stop the ship’s dismantling there. Mark Magnier is a South Asia Bureau Chief with the Los Angeles Times. He’s been covering the last days limbo of the former Exxon Valdez and he says no one knows exactly where it is at the moment.

Mark Magnier: The owners are a big cagey about this. I think they have visions of Greenpeace of something going out and attacking the thing, so all we know is that it’s somewhere out beyond the 12 mile zone of India. It has not been allowed into the waters until the legal limbo is settled.

Werman: Right, and who are the new owners?

Magnier: It’s a group called Priya Blue. This is one of hundreds of agents around the world that basically route dead, benign ships to Alang in the state of Gujarat.

Werman: Right, so the Oriental Nicety is floating somewhere off the coast of the state of Gujarat. It sounds like there’s nothing especially noteworthy about the former Exxon Valdez, a vessel waiting to be dismantled. This is really a story about India’s notorious ship breaking industry. Why is the Exxon Valdez, or former Exxon Valdez, emblematic of the struggle?

Magnier: Well, in some ways this, and the environmentalists admit as much, this ship is in no worse shape than probably dozens of ships that are there at any given time, but I think probably their strategy is to use this as a spotlight on the bigger problem which is basically the dying end of these ships. The environmentalists would like to see the ships completely discharged of all toxins in the rich countries before they come to a poor nation like India, but the ship owners aren’t willing to do that. The whole chain is trying to get away with what it can.

Werman: Remind us please, Mark, why is ship breaking such a dirty business?

Magnier: Part of it is the sheer age of these ships. They have dealt with all sorts of toxins, they have dirty fuel oil residue in them, there’s mercury, there’s arsenic, and toward the end of their life, these ships are not very well maintained oftentimes. They’re sold lower and lower down the chain to people who just want to get through the next six months, and will just run them into the ground.

Werman: Right, so ship breaking is a really dirty business. Are you saying in India there are no environmental protections?

Magnier: There are some environmental protections, but they’re certainly not OSHA. If you see this, it relies on completely illiterate labor that, they have very little understanding of their rights. You’re talking about labor that is so hand to mouth that they just don’t realize if there are problems 20 years down the line, that’s a different world, I’ve got to earn my $2, $4 a day, now just to get by.

Werman: What’s next for this tanker? Any idea of how things are going to ultimately end for this ship that we call the Exxon Valdez?

Magnier: It’s actually, it’s had such a bizarre, strange life and technically, it’s no longer a tanker because a few years ago they converted it to an iron ore carrier actually, but what they’re looking at doing, the owner of course, isn’t going to give his hand away easily, but they’re talking about they would move it to even lower standard countries, Pakistan to the west, and Bangladesh to the east, but that is sort of the plan B.

Werman: Mark Magnier is South Asia Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times. He’s been speaking with us from New Delhi. Mark, thank you very much.

Magnier: Thank you, Marco.

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