Alyeska Settles Valdez Spill Suit for $32 Million : Environment: The deal concludes the last government litigation stemming from the 1989 tanker accident.

Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel and the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday a $31.7-million settlement with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., ending the last of the government lawsuits over the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

“We settled all our claims,” Alaska Atty. Gen. Charles E. Cole said. “I mean, we’re out of there.”

Alyeska, which operates the trans-Alaska pipeline and loading terminal, is a consortium owned by Exxon and six other oil companies.

The parties reached accord during a wave of bad publicity for Alyeska for refusing to turn over complete transcriptions of conversations secretly recorded from the phone lines of its emergency-response headquarters during the first days of the spill. The candid tapes revealed oil company executives to be short of spill-fighting equipment and greatly concerned with the public relations aspects of the disaster.

Though some state and federal prosecutors had known of the tapes long before, Alyeska critic Charles Hamel brought the tapes to public attention last week. Alyeska turned its transcripts over to the state on Tuesday.

The Wednesday settlement also comes two months after a $1-billion settlement of government claims against Exxon Corp., which owned the Exxon Valdez, over damage to the natural resources of Prince William Sound.

The state and federal governments had continued to pursue civil suits seeking much smaller amounts for such damages as the loss of state tax and royalties because of the interruption of tanker traffic from the Port of Valdez. Government attorneys charged that Alyeska had been unprepared to contain a spill of such magnitude.

“Whether the tapes played a role in resolving the one remaining unresolved item, I can’t say,” Cole said. The attorney general said the state had been “very close” to reaching agreement for at least the last month.

Others following the complex legal actions against Alyeska and Exxon believe that the tapes brought Alyeska to agreement.

“I think the public debate over Alyeska’s conduct in connection to those secret transcripts provided the motivation to finally settle,” said Lloyd B. Miller of Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, based in Washington. Miller is the liaison counsel for the remaining private lawsuits against Alyeska and Exxon.

Only these lawsuits and a handful from environmental groups are now pending against Exxon and Alyeska.

Miller oversees about 300 lawsuits involving more than 5,000 named plaintiffs and five class actions, which could eventually benefit between 10,000 and 20,000 people. The suits seek compensation for damage caused to fishermen, Alaska natives and others by the spill.

“Even today there is still oil on the ground, in the fishing grounds, on the clam and mussel beds,” Miller said. “I congratulate the state and federal governments . . . but I continue to be shocked by the failure of either government to seek to help resolve the claims of the victims of the spill.”

Lloyd said state and federal prosecutors should have sought a “global settlement” that would have included the private plaintiffs.

Alyeska will pay the $31.7 million in stages over three years. Of that amount, $2 million will go to the federal government, with more than $400,000 of that being returned to Exxon under provisions of the settlement concluded in September.

The state monies primarily will fund new facilities to help in any future oil spills as well as a popular state project to conserve private timberland now scheduled to be clear-cut inside Kachemak Bay State Park, 100 miles south of Anchorage.