Minutes after midnight, on March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound on Alaska's southern coast. Some 10.8 million gallons (40,900 kiloliters) of oil spilled from the deep gash in the ship's hull, eventually washing up on more than 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) of pristine coastline, causing what still stands as the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Slide Show: Preventing Another Exxon Valdez Disaster

The impact on local wildlife was devastating: An estimated 250,000 seabirds died in the months after the spill, and 14 members of the 36 local Prince William Sound killer whale pod had disappeared by 1990. The so-called carcass count also tallied, among other creatures, 1,000 dead sea otters as well as 151 dead bald eagles, according to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC), a group formed to oversee restoration projects. Some of the spill remains to this day, with a 2003 estimate pointing to about 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) soaked deep into sands in intertidal zones, slowly poisoning ducks and other shore creatures.

The spill affected people living in or near the sound economically and culturally. Commercial fishing and tourism both took hits; pre-spill levels of herring, a fish important for marine food chains and human consumption have yet to bounce back. Alaskan Native communities that subsist on fish and shellfish in the region only saw some of the dwindled sea life populations regain their pre-spill levels by 2003.

The Exxon Valdez calamity also incurred crushing cleanup costs and a legal maelstrom. The giant energy company, then known as Exxon (and as ExxonMobil since its 1999 merger with Mobil) initially settled for $900 million in 1991, to be paid over ten years. Then, in 1994, a jury in Alaska ordered Exxon to pay an additional $5 billion in punitive damages as a result of a class-action lawsuit brought by thousands of Alaskan residents. Just last year, however, after nearly two decades of legal wrangling, the U.S. Supreme Court lowered this fine to about $500 million after multiple appeals from Exxon. All told, the company says in a statement about the notorious anniversary that it has paid "over $3.8 billion as a result of the accident, including compensatory payments, cleanup payments, settlements and fines," and that "the 1989 Valdez accident was one of the lowest points in ExxonMobil's 125 year history."

Tragically, much of the damage might have been avoided with adequate emergency measures in place, says Rebecca Talbot, a spokesperson for the EVOSTC. A silver lining in the accident's aftermath has been a "leap in knowledge," says Talbot, gained from intensive monitoring of the short- and long-term effects of oil spills. The spill also had a galvanizing effect on lawmakers who passed the federal 1990 Oil Pollution Act to help stave off a repeat of the disaster by increasing oversight, stiffening penalties, mandating contingency planning, and creating new research programs.

Since the 1989 crash, the international push for double-hulling oil tankers—already well under way when the single-hulled Exxon Valdez spilled its toxic cargo—has increased, with the United Nations mandating a worldwide phase-out of most single-hulled ships next year. Tanker tracking and warning systems, aided by the advent of the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS), have improved tremendously, as well, experts say.

9 Comments

1. 1. heaven4sure 11:27 PM 3/23/09

   What have we learned after 20 years? How frequently since 1989 have oil spills been the result of human error? Are we more prepared now to deal with an ecological disaster in remote locations? For a human parallel to the Exxon Valdez story cut and paste this link into your browser and check it out. http://www.heaven4sure.com/MeandGodQuestions/LifeLessons/tabid/58/ctl/ArticleView/mid/387/articleId/583/Midnight-Ecological-Disaster-Exxon-Valdez-Remembered.aspx

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2. 2. Jonah Gruber 11:27 PM 3/23/09

   The Exxon Valdez is not the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. The Greenpoint Oil Spill in Brooklyn, which still has not been cleaned up, is far larger. Until recently it was thought that as much as 17,000,000 gallons of oil had seeped from oil refineries into Newtown Creek and the ground below it. It is not estimated that the amount may be in the area of 30,000,000 gallons or more.
   
   This is over 9 times larger than Valdez. So far, no oil companies that held refineries on the creek are admitting any guilt (of course) and there appears to be no sign that the lawsuit (represented by Erin Brocovich et al) is anywhere near coming to finality.
   
   

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3. 3. Jonah Gruber in reply to Jonah Gruber 11:29 PM 3/23/09

   I also wanted to point out that much of the 10 million gallons of oil from Valdez was cleaned up. I believe about 4 million gallons ended up washing ashore.

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4. 4. frgough 02:24 PM 3/24/09

   I find it very interesting that no current photos of Prince William Sound are being shown by SA. You see, the dirty little secret is that after the initial ecological damage caused by the oil, the oil breaks down and becomes fertilizer. Prince William Sound today is a lush area bursting with plant and animal life.
   

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5. 5. Onthebeach 04:21 PM 3/24/09

   Go to the national geographic web site and you will see the oil that is still there today.

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6. 6. Wo Fat in reply to frgough 01:43 PM 3/25/09

   As one of the researchers monitoring recovery from this spill for the last 20 years, I can tell you that this simply isn't true. Oil does break down over time and the final residues are biologically degraded, but the problem in Prince William Sound is that there are significant pockets of oil that remain for reasons we do not understand and are now trying to determine. These pockets of oil have been linked to resources that have not yet recovered. It is still a beautiful place, but recovery is not complete.

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7. 7. MrGneissGuy 03:09 PM 4/6/10

   The oil which is still at Prince William Sound today is actually NOT from the Exxon Valdez spill. It actually comes from the rupture of several massive storage tanks in a 1964 earthquake (which was never cleaned up). I know one of the scientists who worked for an independent lab that tested the area back in the 90's. The oil from the Valdez spill is completely different from the oil there now.

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8. 8. annphilip 05:47 AM 6/11/10

   Planetresource.net has a Eco friendly solution to clean up the tragedy British Petroleum has created, please watch the video animation:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60bdQQQ3iVw and pass this along to as many people as you know.
   
   One person can still make a difference in this world, is that simple interactions have a rippling effect. Each time this gets pass along, the hope in cleaning our planet is passed on.
   

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9. 9. chacesmith 10:02 AM 3/9/12

   Oil Spill Eater II was successfully tested by Exxon in the winter of 1990 proving to Exxon OSE II was the worlds most effective oil spill clean up product at their lab in Florham Park New Jersey. This was verified by Dr. Brown of University of Alaska Fairbanks, and Dr. Steve Hinton of Exxon who both witnessed the test and reported the results. Dr Brown stated there was no product that even approached OSE II's effectiveness, and Dr. Hinton stated that Exxon scientist had never seen any product lift oil off rocks and soil like OSE II. OSE II was then used to clean up a large beach area by the Homa volunteer group in

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