One Alaska Native leader in Cordova, the town that is the center of the Prince William Sound commercial fishing industry, described a groundswell of anger at the ruling.

"I wouldn't want to be anyone from an oil company in this town today, I'll tell you that," said Bob Henrichs, a Native leader in Cordova.

Anyone associated with Exxon is particularly unwelcome, he said. "They hired a drunk who couldn't get a license to drive a car and turned him loose with an oil tanker," he said.

About 40,000 fishermen, Natives, property owners and others affected by the spill sued Exxon over the disaster. Most of the cases were consolidated and heard at the 1994 trial. Many plaintiffs were counting on payments from the punitive verdict to help heal various problems, including a deteriorating fishing economy.

Now the appeals court ruling has dashed those hopes, said Riki Ott, a Cordova fisherman, marine biologist and environmental activist.

The ruling means that Exxon Mobil may emerge unpunished for the spill, which continues to harm the area's environment and people, Ott said.

"They just go on, business as usual, and try to shove all of us under the carpet by relying on the court system, which favors big corporations," she said. "Exxon has continued to profit off this, and we're all slowly going broke."

'SHOCK AND SURPRISE'

Sue Aspelund, executive director of Cordova District Fishermen United, said she reacted to the news with "shock and surprise."

The fishermen's group on Wednesday was still trying to figure out what to do next, she said.

Henrichs, president of a 500-member tribal organization based in Cordova, said his faith in the court system was shaken by the ruling.

"I'd like those judges who made that decision to come up here and confront our people, look us in the eye," he said.

One of the lead attorneys for the spill plaintiffs said he believes the punitive award can be resurrected.

Attorney Brian O'Neill said arguments over the punitive fine will be made again within months before U.S. District Court Judge H. Russel Holland, who presided over the 1994 trial.

"And we'll go back and get the $5 billion. Because I think the process was fair, I think the award was fair," said O'Neill, who presented most of the plaintiffs' case at the trial.

"The thing that I'm sad about and embarrassed about is that it's taken us so long to get here," he said. "It's going to take another year or two longer, but we'll get there."

Meanwhile, Henrichs' organization, the Native Village of Eyak, and other Native groups are pushing for stricter regulation of the trans-Alaska pipeline. The 30-year leases that allow the pipeline to operate on state and federal land are up for renewal in 2004.

Ott is working on a campaign - including a possible new lawsuit against Exxon Mobil - to address chronic illnesses that spill cleanup workers said they suffered as a result of working without proper protections.

The 11 million gallon (50 million liter) spill, the worst tanker disaster in U.S. waters, polluted more than 1,200 miles of shoreline and was the deadliest ever to wildlife.

It killed thousands of marine mammals and hundreds of thousands of seabirds, forced the shutdown of fish harvests and, government scientists say, caused lingering damage to fish, bird and mammal populations.

The U.S. District Court jury found that reckless behavior by Exxon and tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood had led to the spill. That verdict paved the way for the punitive fine.