SPILL!

Vivid color photos enhance this detailed account of the notorious tanker spill of 11 million gallons of crude oil off Alaska in 1989. Some may question whether Captain Hazelwood was ``regarded as one of the best commanders of the Exxon fleet,'' or that his ship was ``one of the newest and finest,'' while Carr's conclusion that ``It is a sad fact that accidents happen. But as long as oil has to be moved by ships, oil spills will occur'' seems unnecessarily fatalistic. Still, the book is fairly even- handed in its description of the collision, of efforts to clean up, and of the impact of the spill on the environment and on the law. More detailed and visually satisfying than Anderson's Oil Spills (Watts, 1990). Selected readings (mostly from Anchorage newspapers, and thus difficult to obtain); index.~(Nonfiction.10+)