An Oil Leak Rattles a State and Its Workers [View All]

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There was a newspaper here once. It was back in the boom years of the 1980’s, when the crude oil surging up from 9,000 feet beneath the earth and ice was still transforming Alaska’s North Slope from Arctic wilderness to flush frontier.

Now this frontier town has no newspaper. Nor a resident mayor or town council or even any real residents. It is just a drill site with as many as 5,000 people — no one seems to have a firm count — who cycle in and out, year round, often on two-week hitches.

They are mostly men, and they work on wells controlled by BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil and other companies. Or they repair trucks and pumps. Or they run the desk or the kitchen at the camps that house and feed the work force. And this week, some of them worry more than they ever have.

“Everybody’s scared,” said David Marshall, a field hand for ASRC Energy Services, a subcontractor with BP. “Everybody’s scared for their jobs. Everybody’s calling everybody.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/10/us/10prudhoe.html?hp&ex=1155182400&en=9de88d695770e519&ei=5094&partner=homepage