The key improvement since the Exxon Valdez incident has not been in hardware but in "peopleware," says Robert Bea, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, (who has driven an oil tanker as part of his research). "What the incident did was began coalescing the international marine community to clean up its act and focus on people and not just [sea] vessels and the like," Bea says.
After all, human error played the biggest role in the accident, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's analysis, along with other official reports. Instructions from the ship's captain, Joe Hazelwood, to return the vessel to the shipping lanes after steering clear of icebergs apparently never reached the helmsman, Robert Kagan, at the time of the wreck. Anecdotal reports about seeing the captain at a bar prior to leaving port, confirmed by a blood test revealing alcohol in his body hours after the accident, also spoke to the lack of staff oversight at the time by Exxon and other oil companies with supertankers on the high seas.
But thicker and doubled hulls, better monitoring and a rested, well-trained crew will not always be enough, says Bea. When spills from tankers do happen, an array of cleanup and remediation techniques, along with specialized technology come to the fore, both to tackle the mess and save the wildlife caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. See the slide show to learn more about the consequences of the Exxon Valdez incident, and how both preventing and remediating oil spills' long-lasting effects have advanced in the last 20 years.
Slide Show: Preventing Another Exxon Valdez Disaster
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Add CommentWhat 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
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe 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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis 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.
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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI 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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGo to the national geographic web site and you will see the oil that is still there today.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs 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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe 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.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlanetresource.net has a Eco friendly solution to clean up the tragedy British Petroleum has created, please watch the video animation:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://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.
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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