From the (Portland) Oregonian, March 31, 1989 [emphasis added]:

On Thursday birds began dying by the hundreds as the slick covered more than 800 square miles; oil threatened to breach a boom around a major salmon hatchery at the Port of San Juan, about 60 miles from Valdez; and the first lawsuit was filed on behalf of fishermen against Exxon and the pipeline operator.

Meanwhile in Washington, President Bush called the spill ``a major tragedy'' but said it would be counterproductive for the federal government to take over the slow-starting cleanup effort...After meeting with Bush at the White House, Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner said that federal, state and Exxon people were working well together and that a federal takeover might slow those efforts.

Note that the Oregonian reported that one week after the massive spill, Bush had dispatched exactly three administration officials to Alaska to report back on the spill. At the time, there was virtually no mainstream news coverage suggesting Bush was acting too slowly in response to the massive Exxon spill.

Here's the direct “counterproductive” quote, from the AP March 30, 1989:

But there was no need for federal intervention in the cleanup, said Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner, who added that such a move "might be counterproductive."