Exxon Valdez
On March 24, 1989 at 4 minutes past midnight, the oil tanker ExxonValdez
struck
a reef in Alaska's breath-taking Prince William Sound.
Instantaneously, the
quiet waters of the sound became a sea of black. "We've
fetched up - ah -
hard aground north of Goose Island off Bligh Reef, and - ah
- evidently leaking
some oil," Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the ship, radioed
the Coast Guard
Marine Safety Office back in Valdez. That "some oil"
turned out to be
a total of 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil leaking from the
ruptured hull of the
ship. By the time a containment effort was put forth, a
weather storm had helped
to spread the oil as much as three feet thick across
1,400 miles of beaches. A
little over ten years have passed since the largest
oil spill and the greatest
environmental disaster in American history, but
the waters and its surroundings
are still recovering. At first, many people
repeated what was then thought as
common knowledge, "oil dissipates, nature
heals quickly, all will be well
in a year or two." This has not been the case
with the Exxon Valdez. This
massive 987-foot tanker has left a lingering,
long-term effect on the natural
habitat that surrounds these pristine waters,
along with an enormous
socio-economic effect that has left many people
wondering when and where the
next oil spill will be. Many associated with the
recovery process, and its more
than one hundred projects per year, say it
will take longer than a human
lifetime to determine if a full recovery is
possible (Fine 1999). RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION The Exxon Valdez oil spill
was initially thought of as a two to three
year clean-up project. As time
went ahead, scientists and clean-up crews
realized that it would take a
longer period of time and require a lot more
effort than originally planned.
Up to this point, the oil has contaminated a
national forest, four wildlife
refuges, three national parks, five state parks,
four "critical habitat
areas" and a state game sanctuary, which
spreads along 1,400 miles of the
Alaskan shoreline. Recent scientific studies
show that the oil continues to
wreak havoc among many spawning salmon, herring,
and other species of fish.
This is even more devastating when considering that
much of the wildlife
around the sound is dependant on the high calorie, high fat
content of the
herring as their prime food source. Among the many casualties
were 2,800 sea
otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, as many as 22 killer
whales, and
an estimated quarter-million seabirds. It is unclear how many
billions of
salmon and herring eggs and intertidal plants succumbed to the
oil
smothering. Within an ecosystem, each living thing depends on other
living
things. That means that when the fish died in Prince William Sound,
there was
less food for the seals that normally eat them. As those seals
died, there was
less food for the killer whales that eat seals (Knickerbocker
1999). This has
led to a domino effect within the food chain, victimizing
many of the animals
surrounding the area. Intertidal mussel beds are still
contaminated to this day.
Twenty-three species of wildlife were effected
by this oil spill, and only two
species, the bald eagle and the river otter,
have fully recovered. The species
that are well on their way to a comeback
include pink salmon, Pacific herring,
sea otters, mussels, black oyster
catcher, common murre, marbled murrelet, and
sockeye salmon. As with any
environmental disasters, there are some animals that
are showing little or no
clear improvement since the spill occurred. This group
includes harbour
seals, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loons,
cormorants, and the
pigeon gullomot. In some areas, that have been hardest hit
by the oil spill,
many of the species have an elevated level of mortality. Even
though the
Exxon Valdez is the most-studied oil spill in world history, it is
also a
particularly difficult one to research because of the lack of baseline
data
on the ecology of Prince William Sound (Birkland 1998). Among all the
animal
casualties, there is another victim, people. Thousands have been forced
to
bare the consequences of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Throughout the
years,
the waters of Alaska have provided families with a living, but the oil
spill
changed that. Fisherman in Cordova and other nearby cities surrounding
the Gulf
of Alaska have struggled with scarce catches. Some Alaskan natives
still depend
on seal meat for food. And fishing is a source of income for
many Alaskan
families. As some fish and seal species continue to struggle 10
years after the
spill, so do the people who depend on them (Knickerbocker
1999). Many of the
people that used these waters as a source of income have
not been able to cope
with the scarce catches, thus forcing more and more
people to apply for
unemployment and other welfare system benefits. A study
completed by Steven
Picou, a sociologist from the University of South
Alabama, has also shown that
the people who have been affected by the oil
spill have been traumatized and
suffer from bouts of depression. There are
high rates of alcoholism and social
ills that can be directly linked to the
Exxon Valdez. Although many have fallen
victim to the oil spill, Exxon, the
owner of the Exxon Valdez was not held
unaccountable. Within the first two
years, Exxon had paid nearly $2.1 billion on
clean up and another $1 billion
in damages to Alaska and the United States in
the form of civil and criminal
fines. Also the captain, Joseph Hazelwood, was
also charged with, but later
acquitted of, operating the ship while intoxicated;
although the validity of
the blood tests given by Captain Hazelwood have been
questioned. Along with
the $3 billion spent in clean up and fines, Exxon was
also ordered to pay $5
billion in punitive damages, which it has managed to fend
off through ongoing
appeals. Not much good comes out of a story as tragic as the
Exxon
Valdez, but there have been some benefits. On August 18, 1990,
eighteen
months after the oil spill, the Federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA) was
passed. The
OPA of 1990 ended a fourteen-year deadlock over how to
improve oil laws. This
act is summarized by the fact it allows the government
to act much quicker upon
notification of an oil spill and holds oil companies
accountable for all
financial liabilities. This in turn has forced companies
to review their oil
policies and procedures and implement safer ways to
transport oil. The OPA has
also introduced many standards and regulations
such as: i) ships are to have
double hulls as of the year 2015, ii) increase
training for crew, and iii) an
increase in the development of equipment and
ships that respond to oil spills.
The OPA has also established a $1
billion liability fund, which will be paid by
the oil industry. Along with
the OPA of 1990, the Exxon Valdez is also
responsible for the creation of two
Regional Citizen's Advisory Councils, one,
which operates from Cook Inlet and
the other from Prince William Sound. These
councils are funded solely by
assessments that are made on the oil industry. The
councils include a number
of local interest groups and present views from all
aspects of the general
population. Since these councils have access to capital,
they have the
ability to fund research and projects that allow them to play big
roles in
the formation of government policies. CONCLUSION In regards to oil
spills,
they are best summarized by this....so long as there are ships, and
humans
steering them, accidents will happen, and maybe huge ones
(Knickerbocker
1999). Much is to be said on the cause and effect of the
Exxon Valdez oil spill,
but since we cannot turn back time to correct our
mistakes, we must see the
brighter side of every picture. Some of the
wildlife have made a full recovery,
and coupled with the fact that some have
almost fully recovered, the ecology of
sound could reach its pre-oil spill
level. Also, money that was paid by Exxon in
fines was used to make numerous
parks, trails, and used in the protection of
forests. The Exxon Valdez oil
spill also led to the formation of the Oil
Pollution Act of 1990, which
broke a fourteen-year deadlock between the House
and the Senate. None of
these events would have occurred, had it not been for
that fateful oil spill.
Researchers now have a better understanding of the
impact of cleanup and how
hydrocarbons--the building blocks of oil--affect
certain species (Birkland
1999 ). But with that said, society will always
remember the horrific images
of oil drenched birds, and beaches smothered with
oil and one has to wonder,
"Will this happen again?." The answer we
long to hear is "Never", but
accidents are bound to happen. Recently,
the freighter New Carissa ran
aground on the Oregan Coast and gave officials
there numerous problems the
likes of which included oil spillage. So when you
ask yourself, "How did the
New Carissa run aground and leak oil with all
these new rules and
regulations," the image of another Exxon Valdez oil
spill isn't to hard
imagine. BIBLIOGRAPHY Birkland, Thomas A. 1998. In the Wake
of the Exxon
Valdez. Environment 40:4-11. Davidson, Art. 1990. In the Wake of
the Exxon
Valdez. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books. Economist 1999. Stains
That
Remain. Economist 350:35. Fine, Doug 1999. Exxon Valdez: An Anniversary
to
Celebrate?. Sports Afield 221:12. Holloway, Marguerite 1999. Oil In
Water.
Scientific American 280:38. Keeble, John. 1991. Out of the
Channel. New York,
NY: HarperCollins Publisher. Knickerbocker, Brad.
1999. Preventing Another
Monster Oil Slick. Christian Science Monitor
91:13. Knickerbocker, Brad. 1999.
The Big Spill. Christian Science
Monitor 91:1. Time for Kids 1999. After the
Spill. Time for Kids
4:4.
Bibliography
Birkland, Thomas A. 1998. In the Wake of the
Exxon Valdez. Environment
40:4-11. Davidson, Art. 1990. In the Wake of
the Exxon Valdez. San Francisco,
CA: Sierra Club Books. Economist 1999.
Stains That Remain. Economist 350:35.
Fine, Doug 1999. Exxon Valdez: An
Anniversary to Celebrate?. Sports Afield
221:12. Holloway, Marguerite
1999. Oil In Water. Scientific American 280:38.
Keeble, John. 1991. Out
of the Channel. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publisher.
Knickerbocker,
Brad. 1999. Preventing Another Monster Oil Slick. Christian
Science
Monitor 91:13. Knickerbocker, Brad. 1999. The Big Spill.
Christian
Science Monitor 91:1. Time for Kids 1999. After the Spill. Time
for Kids 4:4.