Author to discuss lasting impacts of Valdez oil spill
Activist from Cordova revisits the diaster two decades later
Author and activist Riki Ott will present "The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Impact: on Ecology and Community" at Friday night's Evening at Egan lecture. Her talk will begin at 7 p.m. in the Egan Library on the University of Alaska Southeast Auke Lake campus.
Ott, who lives in Cordova, experienced the aftermath of the spill firsthand. She will discuss the long-ranging effects of the disastrous event two decades later.
UAS Director of Public Relations and Marketing Katie Bausler said she was thrilled to get Ott as a speaker for the lecture series, She remembers interviewing her as a reporter when she worked for KTOO in the mid-1990s
"I remember how compelling she was so I definitely wanted to get her," she said.
Bausler said Ott will show slides of Cordova and the surrounding areas that show that the event is far from over.
"She has pictures that were just taken this year and last year that show that there's still a ton of oil on the shore," Bausler said.
Ott, a former commercial fisherman, has a degree in marine toxicology with a specialty in oil pollution. She writes a blog for the Huffington Post and is the author of two books on the spill, "Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill" which explores the long-term health impacts of the spill to wildlife and humans, and "Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill" which focuses on the spill's social trauma.
Ott is also the founder of three nonprofit organizations that deal with lingering harm from man-made environmental disaster.