Saturday, April 4, 2020

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

    The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was one of the most disastrous oil spills in United States history. This is partly because of the extremely poor response to the oil spill and controversy surrounding it.
    On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound Alaska. The impact caused nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil to leak into the ocean and its surrounding parts. Yes, you read correctly it was 11 million gallons of crude oil. 
    What made this oil spill particularly hard to clean up was the fact that only helicopters and boats could move into the remote location and the magnitude of the spill was so large that government and corporate cleanup crews struggled to get the oil spill cleaned up. As a result, it took a good amount of time before cleanup operations could commence. But that took a toll on the local wildlife.
    These cleanup crews were racing to find solutions and decided on trying chemical dispersants, burning, and mechanical cleanup. Their first issue was that there wasn't enough dispersant and that caused it to be ineffective. Their second issue was that bad weather prevented burning from occurring. Lastly, the skimmer cleanup boats were all in poor shape and were unavailable causing the oil to spread.
    Unfortunately, these issues caused cleanup crews to make tough decisions. Since they weren't able to clean everything up they gave ranks of importance. Seal pupping and fish hatcheries were given the highest rank and hence the highest priority. While this was successful in saving millions of animal lives millions more died.
                                                         
    In the end, investigators found out that it was the captain's fault for the crash because he was drinking and wasn't on the bridge. After learning their lesson, Congress passed strict regulations for oil tankers and passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Today oil tanker hulls are much stronger and ships are better operated which has contributed to a decrease in spills.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaRdUHrUnBs

https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response/exxon-valdez-spill-profile
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousApril 9, 2020 at 11:21 PM

    Believe it or not, oil spills are actually a common occurence, though the majority are very small. However, when large oil spills occur, they tend to be disastrous and destructive. California had its own major oil spill -- the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. It was caused after a new oil drill platform experienced a well blowout. The result was 3,700 dead birds and 4.2 billion gallons of crude oil gushing out from the well and faults opened up by the blowout. All together, it took 11 days to cap. These oil spills have continued to teach us that we need to be more careful with how we handle our energy resources and how detrimental fossil fuels can be to the environment.

    Sources:
    https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/largest-oil-spills-affecting-us-waters-1969.html
    https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/45-years-after-santa-barbara-oil-spill-looking-historic-disaster-through-technology.html
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/

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