Relating to using oil spill settlement funds to create a long-term research and monitoring endowment.

House Joint Resolution 13, "Relating to using oil spill settlement funds to create a long-term research and monitoring endowment," supports the recent action of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees to create a long-term research and monitoring endowment using $115,000,000 of the expected reserve. The resolution also encourages the Trustee Council to endow chairs in the sciences at the University of Alaska and supports Trustee efforts to work with the Congressional delegation to obtain the necessary investment authority to increase the earnings on remaining settlement funds.

The EVOS Trustee Council allocates money obtained from settlement of the Exxon Valdez spill litigation. Over the years, EVOS funds have largely been used to purchase land for habitat preservation, and have been lacking in the area of research. I believe this has left a critical gap in our understanding of this spill and how to respond in the future. Endowing scientific chairs at the University will help increase available baseline data, enhance the biological resources of the northern Gulf of Alaska, and significantly improve spill-related technology, restoration methods and ecosystem preservation. For example, it is widely understood that many aspects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill response, such as high-pressure washing of beaches and rock washing, may have caused more long-term harm than benefit. We also need to know if types of marine ecosystems are extra sensitive to certain cleanup activities, and if so, how we should respond to a spill in those areas.

An endowment of this nature will fulfill the intent of the Exxon Valdez oil settlement and the mission of the Trustee Council, which is to restore, rehabilitate, replace, enhance, or acquire equivalent resources and services in the oil spill region.