On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince

William Sound, Alaska. The grounding rupturing its hull and spilled nearly 11
million gallons of crude oil, nearly 20 % of the 55 million it was carrying, into the
remote, scenic, and biologically active body of water which immediately became
worldwide news. The spill had an unprecedented and massive impact on the wildlife
in the whole region and became a huge focus for public outcry due to the
carelessness of the incident. Captain Joseph Hazelwood, who was not at the helm at the
time but as Captain was held accountable, commanded the ship. In his trial it was
contested that he drank two or three vodkas about six hours before the Exxon
Valdez hit Bligh Reef. He was found to have a blood alcohol content of .061
approximately 10 hours after the incident. Ultimately he was cleared by witnesses of
the piloting while intoxicated charge, however he was convicted of the
misdemeanor charge of negligent discharge of oil, fined $50,000, and sentenced to
1,000 hours of community service in which he fully completed. Despite his acquittal,
however, the incident haunted him publicly. Exxon was ultimately held accountable
for the spill and the State of Alaska sued Exxon and won $5,287,000,000 in damages.
However, after years of litigation the judgment was eventually reduced to
$507,500,000.


In the weeks and months that followed the spill, the oil spread over a wide
area in Prince William Sound and beyond, resulting in a previously unprecedented
response and cleanup. Massive attempts were made to contain the oil by many
individuals, companies, and conservation groups for all over the world. The clean up
took three years, from 1989 to 1991 and despite the massive efforts clean up the oil, it has
still lingered causing unexpected chronic damage. Many scientist and biologists have
estimated that the damage caused to the ecosystem could last for many years, and has.
Now, 25 years later, the spill still has lingering effects. It has been estimated in the
convening years that he spilled crude oil covered over 1,300 miles of coastline and
11,000 square miles of ocean injuring or killing an estimated 250,000 seabirds, 2,800
sea otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 killer whales. It is only now that some of that
wildlife has returned to pre-spill numbers. However, the local population is still
struggling with its after effects 25 years later. After the spill, several of the fish and all of
the crab populations bottomed out and those industries crashed taking the local
economies with them. Today, the shrimp and salmon industries are still slowly
recovering. Exxons court battles caused what remuneration they did receive to come too
late. One good outcome is that the state has become active in its disaster preparations.
Before the spill, their record for response time was shoddy due to complacency. Their
equipment wasnt available because of the weather and the previous 12 years incident
free status. Unfortunately, that lesson came at a dire cost. While some things are
improving, even today, there is still a very long way to go and despite the efforts, nothing
can or will ever be the same there.

The underlying cause for all of this from then until now, has been the result of
corporate irresponsibility combined with a systemic lack of government preparedness,
forethought, and oversight has led to a number of massive failures such as these types of
situations. Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon disasters draw almost direct
parallels, especially DWH. Usually, there are not major disasters of these proportions
happening at the same time, so in long gaps between emergencies, what happens is there
is a tendency for corporations to get lax with their practices and governments to settle
into a rut of complacency, which is exactly what happened in all of these cases. For
example, when the Exxon spill happened, all of the States response equipment was
encased in snow and impeded the initial recovery. In the years following, after things had
settled down and public outcry subsided, the courts didnt hold Exxons feet to the fire
strongly enough and allowed all of the lawyering to whittle down the much needed
damages from over 5 billion to just over half a billion dollars. Money that the company
has in spades, that could have gone to help recovery efforts for the wildlife and local
economies immensely. Sadly, its a shame that these lessons always have to come at such
devastating expense. And while things are improving slowly, it still appears this has
become such a trend that it is almost feels like standard operating procedure.