History: Exxon-Valdez



The 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill was the previously largest spill, and has been a benchmark of measurement to the Deepwater Horizon accident.  Hitting Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, the Exxon-Valdez spill released 11 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean.  BP’s spill was estimated to be 185 million gallons, and this count does not include the 800,000 that BP managed to capture.* For a clearer comparison, the Deepwater Horizon spill was like an Exxon-Valdez spill happening repeatedly every one to ten days in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Exxon-Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council was formed to oversee the ecosystem restoration of Prince William Sound.  The council found that the oil left, previously expected to detox through weathering and natural processes, was trapped in smaller bays for weeks. Some of this was pulled down in the tidal flow down to the seabed.  The Office of Technology Assessment has estimated that only 3 to 4 percent of the Exxon-Valdez spill was recovered through beach cleanup and skinning, and other government scientists predict only 14% was removed during cleanup efforts at the time.  Today it is estimated that 16,000 gallons of oil are still buried in smaller parts of the spill area, and some has been found on the Kenai Peninsula, over 450 miles away.**
Even twenty years later, suffering exists in the area by various species effected by the spill:
Substantial contamination of mussel beds persists, and this remarkably unweathered oil is a continuing source of toxic hydrocarbons. Sea otters, river otters, Barrow's goldeneyes and harlequin ducks have showed evidence of continued hydrocarbon exposure.
The depressed population of Pacific herring—a critical source of food for over 40 predators including seabirds, harbor seals and Steller sea lions—is having severe impacts up the food chain. Wildlife population declines continue for harbor seal, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loon, pigeon guillemot, and pelagic red-faced cormorants and double-crested cormorants.
The Exxon oil spill resulted in profound physiological effects to fish and wildlife. These included reproductive failure, genetic damage, curved spines, lowered growth and body weights, altered feeding habits, reduced egg volume, liver damage, eye tumors and debilitating brain lesions.**
Because of the profound effects on wildlife, Prince William Sound’s herring fishery has been closed for 13 of the 19 years following the spill, and remains closed still.  Investigating these effects and understanding history of oil spills will help the cleanup efforts of the BP disaster, as they will be ongoing for many years go come.  
Many of the logistical issues in the Exxon=Valdez spill were accessibility.  Prince William Sound is only accessibly by helicopter, boat or plane; forcing efforts and prices of the recovery efforts much higher than what it would have been in a more easily accessible region, like the Gulf of Mexico.  Like what has been found in the Deepwater Horizon case, Exxon-Valdez cut corners and made mistakes that manifested themselves to be extremely costly to the company and to the environment. Shipmaster Joseph Hazelwood was given permission to use an inbound lane for passage because the outbound lane was blocked with icebergs.  He left two men in charge after 11 p.m. who had not been given their mandatory six hour break.  Though the ship was on autopilot, the radar system that could have predicted a collision was broken, and had been for sometime.  Repairs were not done due to what was considered excessive cost.
In addition to cutting costs with equipment, the crew from 1989 was also half the size of a crew 11 years prior, creating 12-14 hour shifts, not to mention overtime.   Coast Guard inspections in Valdez were also not done before the ship left, and so they took off with a shorthanded crew, and broken radar system into waters known to have huge risks to passing vessels.  Even twenty years later, similar mistakes were made in the course leading up to the BP disaster. 
Cleanup efforts in Valdez were criticized for being too delayed by Exxon.  Given the unique nature of Prince William Sound, cleanup was difficult.  One technique used was high-pressure hot water, to displace the oil caught in small areas of rocky coves.  This hot water, however, also destroyed many essential organisms that live along a shoreline such as plankton.  Certain types of bacteria and fungi have since been found to provide a natural breakdown of oil that contaminates the water, one of the scientific lessons from cleanup efforts.  At the time of the Exxon spill, the theory was to clean everything; now this better understanding of microbial species living on shorelines provides a better understanding of oil recovery.



*BBC