Word: almost
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...aground, he had a blood-alcohol level of .06, higher than the .04 the Coast Guard considers acceptable for ship captains. Assuming he drank nothing after the accident and his body metabolized at the normal rate, Hazelwood's level at the time of the accident was about .19, almost double the amount that causes a motorist to be judged drunk in many states. Exxon fired Hazelwood after it got the test results, a prime case of reacting long after the damage has been done. On Friday the state filed criminal charges against Hazelwood for operating a ship under the influence...
What was the hang-up? In a word, says an Alyeska supervisor, "complacency." Lulled by almost twelve years of oil shipping through Valdez without a major accident, Alyeska let its old equipment run down to the point that it was taxed to the limit when it cleaned up a small spill of a mere 1,500 bbl. in January. Workers who had been hired to devote full time to combatting oil spills were replaced by people whose primary duties lay elsewhere. The state government failed to keep Alyeska up to the mark; the legislature denied its watchdog agency funds...
...spill happened in almost the worst place and at nearly the worst time possible. The jagged coast of Prince William Sound is dotted with innumerable coves and inlets where the spilled oil can collect and stay for months, killing young fish that spawn in the shallows. Fishermen have already written off the herring season that was to start this week. Soon waterfowl by the tens of thousands will finish their northward migrations and settle into summer nesting colonies in Prince William Sound. For them, says Ann Rothe, Alaska regional representative of the National Wildlife Federation, "it will be like returning...
...spill -- meet that test. Both the state of Alaska and the Federal Government have opened criminal investigations of the spill. "It will be a long war of experts," says James McNerney, a Houston specialist in environmental and maritime law. The battle over this spill and its consequences could prove almost as messy and unpredictable as the environmental damages...
...Almost 20 years earlier, at the start of the Brezhnev era of economic stagnation and recurring rounds of repression, I was assigned to TIME's Moscow bureau. I took up residence with my family in an apartment block reserved for foreigners and set out to cover what was, despite the depressing realities of Soviet life, a fascinating story. Then, on a May morning in 1970, I received a phone call from an official in the Soviet Foreign Ministry. "Your work here is finished," he said. There were no accusations, no explanations, just "Your work here is finished," and a departure...