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The US Government Just Closed Its Case on the Exxon Valdez Disaster

Nearly 26 years ago, the Exxon Valdez struck a reef about 125 miles east of Anchorage, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil in what was then the worst spill in US history.
Photo via US Coast Guard/EPA

Federal authorities and officials in Alaska are closing their cases on the Exxon Valdez disaster, nearly 26 years after the grounded supertanker unleashed what was then the worst US oil spill.

The Justice Department and its Alaskan counterpart had been seeking additional cleanup funds from ExxonMobil after a decline in harlequin ducks and sea otters in oil-stricken Prince William Sound. The drop in populations had been blamed on buried oil that remained long after the 1989 disaster, but the Justice Department said those species have since rebounded to pre-spill levels and that the lingering oil "is no longer biologically significant to these species."

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The decision brings to an end the court cases against Exxon, now ExxonMobil, that followed the 11-million-gallon spill in 1989.

"Our action today allows us to celebrate all that has been accomplished in Prince William Sound since the spill," Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden said in a statement announcing the decision.

Related: The Federal Government Says Billions of Animals Died From the BP Disaster

The Exxon Valdez struck a reef about 125 miles east of Anchorage in March 1989, ripping open eight of its 11 cargo tanks. Exxon agreed to pay $125 million in fines and $900 million for cleanup and restoration, about $200 million of which is left, according to Alaskan officials.

The government asked a judge to reopen the settlement in 2006, asking for another $92 million because of the decline in duck and otter populations. But after nearly a decade of study, those populations returned, and the government dropped its request.

But the decision has upset some environmentalists in Alaska. Bob Shavelson, executive director of Cook Inletkeeper, said oil can still be found beneath the beaches a quarter-century later, and the area's once-lucrative herring fishery has yet to rebound from a post-spill crash. He called the government's decision to close the case "a travesty."

"They let one of the largest corporations on the planet walk away from the table with $100 million on it," Shavelson told VICE News.

The announcement comes the week after the federal government laid out details of a $20 billion proposed settlement with BP over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout — a spill more than ten times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster.

Watch the VICE News documentary Oil and Water here: 

Follow Matt Smith on Twitter: @mattsmithatl