Oil: It’s Not So Slick After All

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 1989

Ship Details

987 feet long

Second newest in Exxon fleet

Carrying 53,094,510 gallons (1,264,155 barrels) of crude oil

Headed to Long Beach, California from Alaska

Crew of 19

Problems Before the Accident

Failure of third mate to properly maneuver the vessel

Captain Hazelwood may have been under the influence of alcohol

Tired crew, not enough man power

Failure of U.S. Coast Guard to provide an effective vessel traffic system

Lack of effective pilot and escort services

Gradual degradation of oversight and safety practices by the Exxon Shipping Company

What Happened?

• Valdez ran aground at Bligh Reef shortly

after midnight on March 24, 1989 while

trying to avoid icebergs

• Captain kept the engine running and tried

to force it off the reef

• 8 cargo tanks and 2 ballast tanks were

ruptured

• No one was prepared to deal with the

damage

•Spill was the 34th of the world’s largest

spills in 25 years

•widely considered the number one spill

worldwide in terms of damage to the

environment

Oil Spill from Day 4 to Day 56 after the accident

How Much Oil???

◼ Approximately 11

million gallons or

257,000 barrels. The

amount of spilled oil is

roughly equivalent to

125 Olympic-sized

swimming pools.

2%14%

20%

1%50%

13%

Beached

Recovered

Atmospheric Photolysis

Ocean Floor

What Happened to the 11 Million ?

Dispersed in H20

Biodegraded/ photolysed

in H20

Impacts: The Aftermath

➢Economic▪ Fishing

▪ Tourism/ recreation

➢Environment▪Water

▪ Land

▪Shoreline: Approximately 1,300 miles.

▪From Bligh Reef the spill stretched 460 miles to

the tiny village of Chignik on the Alaska Peninsula

▪Animals

Photos courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

Punishment

❖Exxon

❖ Fined 150 million, but…

❖Agreed to pay another 100 million

❖ Paid another 900 million

❖Captain Hazelwood

❖ Not guilty

❖ Fined $50,000 and 1,000 hrs of

community service

Clean Up

◼ Took 4+ summers and $2.1 Billion

◼ Not all beaches cleaned- some oiled today

◼ 10,000 workers; 1,000 boats; 100 airplanes and helicopters

◼ Hot water

◼ High pressure

◼ Bioremediation

◼ Chemical Agents and solvents

S.L.A.R.

Photos courtesy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.

Status of Injured Resources (last updated 2002)

◼ Not RecoveringResources are showing little or no clear improvement since spill injuries occurred.

◼ Common loon, Cormorants (3 species), Harbor seal, Harlequin duck, Pacific herring , Pigeon

guillemot

◼ RecoveringSubstantive progress is being made toward recovery objective. The amount of progress and time

needed to achieve recovery vary depending on the resource.

◼ Clams, Wilderness Areas , Intertidal communities, Killer whale (AB pod), Marbled murrelet,

Mussels, Sea otter, Sediments

◼ RecoveredRecovery objectives have been met.

◼ Archaeological resources, Bald eagle, Black oystercatcher, Common murre, Pink salmon,

River otter, Sockeye salmon

◼ Recovery UnknownLimited data on life history or extent of injury; current research; inconclusive or not complete.

◼ Cutthroat trout, murrelet, Rockfish, subtidal communities

Joe Bridgman, Information

Officer for the Alaska

Department of Environmental

Conservation, discovers

subsurface oil from seemingly

clean beach, Meares Point,

Perry Island (Prince William

Sound).

✓ The U.S. Coast Guard now monitors fully laden tankers via satellite

✓ Two escort vessels accompany each tanker while passing through the entire sound.

✓ Specially trained marine pilots, with considerable experience in Prince William Sound, board tankers from their new pilot station at Bligh Reef

✓ Congress enacted legislation requiring that all tankers in Prince William Sound be double-hulled by the year 2015.

✓ Contingency planning for oil spills in Prince William Sound must now include a scenario for a spill of 12.6 million gallons. Drills are held in the sound each year

✓ skimming systems to remove oil from the water are now 10 times greater than in 1989, with equipment in place capable of recovering over 300,000 barrels of oil in 72 hours

✓ Even if oil could have been skimmed up in 1989, there was no place to put the oil-water mix. Today, seven barges are available with a capacity to hold 818,000 barrels of recovered oil

✓ Dispersants are now stockpiled for use and systems are in place to apply them from helicopters, airplanes, and boats.

Changes Made, Lessons Learned

Resources

http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/details.html

http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/abl/OilSpill/oilspill.htm

http://www.adn.com/evos/photos/evos03l.jpg http://members.aol.com/marygazo/sailor.gif

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~radovic/valdez_spill.gif

http://www.uscg.mil/lantarea/iip/FAQ/ReconnOp_10.shtml

http://www.fra.org/onwatch/9703/ow9703-d.htmlNational Research Council.Using Oil Spill Dispersants On the

Sea. National Academy Press, March 1989. Pg. 215, 230-234.

Biomagnification

◼ Biomagnification (or bioaccumulation) is the increase in the concentration of a chemical or element as it moves up the food chain.

◼ Examples: DDT, Hg, Aresenic.

Local Case Study

http://www.ebi.net/ebi/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=5605