What Work did you Do on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Cleanup?
  (1989 or 1990)
Told from the Workers' Point of View,
Your Story is the Most Important One
 Everyone who worked on the oil spill cleanup has an important story to tell.

Your Story is One that Only You Can Tell   Current Survey form

Name  Mary Andrew    Date filled out:  June 15, 2003

Address  P.O. Box 1106  Kokhanok, Ak 99606

Phone number  907-282-2252

Who was your employer?  VECO

Period of working on cleanup.  Period of working on cleanup. from 5/1/89 to 9/9/89 mainly at Eleanor Island with Task Force 4

Did you work on the beaches?  Yes, scrubbing rocks for 1 day but mostly working from maxi barge spraying or directly on beach hot water hosing.

Which beaches, when?  Eleanor Island ,May - August and I believe on Knight Island toward the end.


Did you travel on your own boat,  a rented State boat,  a company boat?
They ferried us from the Greens Creek Barge where we stayed to maxi barge #4 where we worked, mostly with rented fishing boats and sometimes with company boats

Did you ever visit on one of the larger boats, even briefly?
Yes, we visited one of the big boats once to use the phone, I can't remember the name.


Did you work around the containers that held the barrels of chemical?
I don't think so.

Specific job  The first 3 weeks we worked with housekeeping on Greens Creek Barge. After r&r worked 4 hrs scrubbing rocks then was moved to maxi barge 4 where we sprayed from barge or from beaches.  We also cleaned oil booms and bagged oily pompoms.  Toward the end we were moved to the navy ship, The Duluth, where we washed & dried oily raingear, boots and gloves on the decon barge.

After the first r&r they put us on the beach for 4 hrs scrubbing rocks then we were moved to maxi barge 4 where we hot water sprayed from the barge or on cherry pickers (I guess that's what they are called, the baskets connected to a boom) or on the beaches. I was never on a pontoon boat.


Other Comments
We always had oil on our skin even if we used raingear, boots, hard hat, life vest and rubber gloves.  In August 1989 we were quickly pulled from a beach that had been previously treated with several chemicals.  I believe we were on that beach spraying for less than a day but my sister remembers it being more like a day and a half.  It had a lot of oil but it was brown, bubbly and had a different smell to it.

I am not absolutely positive if we were pulled off that one beach in July or
August but I believe it was August

Did your sister work the same job you did all the time?  Yes, we worked at the same job but she got sick while we were there but still kept working.  She will write you all about it.

Symptoms of Overexposure to chemicals * Did you have any of these?
After returning home, I had a small growth on one of my wrists but it went away.
If you were around the chemicals, or had to handle them in any way,
was there any info posted at your worksite about the hazards of the
chemical?  I don't remember

  - called an MSDS info sheet-

Did you ever have anyone running any 'exposure level tests?' * Or did you
ever see any being done? I don't remember


(Placing a tube 9 inches from your mouth & some apparatus that measured
exposure in parts per million)

Did you ever have blood in your urine? I don't know, Exxon would know they always took UA samples after we got back from r&r.


Did you know anyone who tested positive for blood in their urine?
no

Were you one of the workers whose blood was drawn, regularly?
no

(You would have been one of those working with the inipol EAP 22?)

If so, did you ever get a copy of the results?



Do you have any health problems?

If so, what?

Do you generally have an overwhelming 'tiredness?'
from being overweight

How is your eyesight?  I haven't checked for a few years, will do so this fall but I've been wearing eyeglasses since I was young.

Do you have a doctor's diagnosis?
no

Were you able to have children, and if so, were they born healthy? I'm single, I didn't want any  

Do you know any other workers?
Yes, our supervisors were Richard Randazzo Sr and Richard Randazzo Jr.  Our foremen were Randy Sumner(?), Wayne Totemoff and someone called CJ.  The crew member names I remember were: James Wolenzek, Court Lestenkoff, Debra the power plant operator, Shaun Seetomona + people who had nicknames like country, cowboy or o.t.

There were several older people on our crew of 12 or 13 named George, Brad (from Delta Junction) and Leona McJimsey from Soldotna. I read on your web site where she died in `96.  I believe she worked on the beaches before joining our crew.

Also my sister and my dad:

Sandra Hobson  P.O. Box 1112  Kokhanok, Ak 99606
Greg Andrew Sr  P.O. Box 1012  Kokhanok, Ak 99606

My sister and I worked for VECO from 5/1/89 to 9/9/89 mainly at Eleanor Island
and my Dad worked for a couple weeks but got sick and had to leave.

 Know anyone here?  valdezlink.com/hmm.htm  Know Beth Gooden?

I didn't know Beth Gooden and I had some pictures but misplaced them.  

There is a guy in Anchorage who took a lot of pictures but I can't remember his name. 

My sister and I are trying to remember his name.

Is it OK to ad your comments under the navy ship pictures on this page?  Yes, it is okay

Asked for valdezlink.com/women.htm the basic info

valdezlink.com/head_start.htm  explains why