alaskan oil spill
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Alaskan Oil Spill. Ashley Ragland . What Happened?. March 23, 1989 at 9:15pm, the 986-foot Exxon Valdez, 2 nd newest vessel out of the company’s 20-tanker fleet, left the Trans Alaska Pipeline terminal in Prince William Sound, Alaska - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Alaskan Oil SpillAshley Ragland
What Happened?
March 23, 1989 at 9:15pm, the 986-foot Exxon Valdez, 2nd newest vessel out of the company’s 20-tanker fleet, left the Trans Alaska Pipeline terminal in Prince William Sound, Alaska
William Murphy, an expert ship's pilot and Captain Joe Hazelwood had the responsibility to get 53,094,510 mill gallons (1,264,155 barrels) to Los Angeles, California
The ship took a different route in attempt to avoid ice but failed March 24, 1989 at 12:04 a.m. the vessel hit the Bligh Reef spilling over
11million gallons of its 53 million gallon cargo of Prudhoe Bay crude oil Out of the 11 tanks, 8 were damaged and impacted approximately 1,300
miles of the Alaskan shoreline. 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools could be filled with amount of oil spilled
WeaknessesPublic relations team did a poor job handling the after mathDamaged their public image extensively by not immediately
issuing a public statement and not owning up to the mistakeCompany was not responding fast enoughExxon’s top executives didn’t comment on accident for almost a
week after the spill Public statements by the company sometimes contradicted
information from other sources
Weaknesses cont. Exxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl, sent a series of lower ranking
executives to the scene instead of dealing with it personally Gave the impression this problem was not important enough to have
the attention of the top executives. Made the company look week and looked like they didn’t want to
take control of the situation. Exxon news briefings were based only in Valdez
Small town with limited communications resources Made spreading information through the media difficult. Failed to update its media relations people world wide
Interesting Quote/Fact
''All crises have a window of opportunity to gain control of 45 minutes to 12 hours,'’
-Paul Shrivastava
director of the Industrial Crisis Institute
Attempt To Change The ImageExxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl’s 1st statement was
made six days after the accidentVisited Alaska on April 14,three weeks after the event
Media
Ran a world wide newspaper ad 10 days after the spill apologizing for the incident but not accepting responsibility
Ad appeared to be a cliché did not address the questions about Exxon's conduct
Success Rawl pledged to clean everything up
He visited news bureaus to explain what the company would do, He answered whatever questions were asked Turned the companies image around Within 24
In 1994 a jury awarded $287 million to compensate for economic losses $5 billion awarded punitive damages due to company's "reckless"
behavior Exxon has only paid $15,000 in compensation per claimant Close to 8,000 people or 1/4 of the plaintiff have died waiting to be
compensated
Spent the last 14 years appealing the verdict, In 2006, a court cut the damages in half to $2.5 billion
Success contThe chosen public relations strategy made the ecological
nightmare worse They hosed scorching hot water at high pressure on the shoreline Scientists thought this plan "poison to the beach and area's many
animals"
Since the disaster The company's public relations campaign revolves around "earth scientists"
Exxon's staff to doesn't’t take responsibility for environmentalists' claims of ecological damage
Irreversible Damage In first year most of the visible damage was washed away but
the environment is still feeling the effects Scientists noted higher death rates among sea otters Other species growth has been stunted along with other
damage When species procreated, they carried mutations and disease with
them Over 32 thousand people unable to make a living with commercial
fishing Caused over $300 million of economic damage
Irreversible Damage cont Decrease in Tourism spending
8% in south central Alaska 35% in southwest Alaska in the year after the spill. loss of 9,400 visitors and $5.5 million spent by the state
Pink salmon eggs were still being effected by oil remains on stones of stream banks up until 1993
Southwestern part of Prince William Sound lost 1.9 million (28%) of its potential stock of wild pink salmon.
Oil is still found on half of the 91 arbitrarily elected beaches surveyed 12 years later
Death Toll 250,000 -500,000 (90 species), seabirds died after the
disaster 900 bald eagles 300 harbor seals 1,000 harlequin ducks
14 killer whales
2,800 sea otters
Billions of salmon and herring eggs
4 human deaths associated with cleanup
References
Cleveland, C. J. (2010, June 9). Exxon Valdez oil spill. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill?topic=58075
Details About the Accident. (1990, February). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/details.cfm
Exxon Valdez. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.epa.gov/osweroe1/content/learning/exxon.htm
Holusha, J. (1989, April 21). Exxon's Public-Relations Problem. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://crisiscommunications.ning.com/notes/Exxon_Valdez
Smith, S. (2008, March 14). The Exxon Valdez Disaster Goes On. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://socialistworker.org/2008/03/14/exxon-valdez
West, L. (n.d.). Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/p/exxon_valdez.htm