Exxon Valdez Oil Spill by Sarah Hughes

Location

834914 — 2025-08-21 15:51:58 UTC

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred in the Gulf of Alaska. About 11 million gallons of oil spilled from the ship, covering over 25% of the Gulf of Alaska.

What Happened?

834914 — 2025-08-24 17:56:48 UTC

On March 24, 1989 at around 12:04 am an oil tanker called the Exxon Valdez from the crude oil company Exxon started to leak oil into the Prince William's Sound in the Gulf of Alaska. The ship hit the Bligh Reef causing a small break in the ship to build up and cause the whole oil hull to rupture. While it was stationed just six miles off the coast, 5.8 million tons of crude oil spilled into the water in just 3 hours. Over the span of the whole day over 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the water. In the end over 1,300 miles of coastline was affected and over 25% of the Gulf of Alaska was covered in crude oil.

Impact on People

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Due to the decline in water quality immediately after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, many people reported the water tasting and smelling like oil. Some people, especially those involved in cleaning up the disaster, have reported lingering health problems decades later. As seen in the picture above, many fish were killed by the unusual amounts of oil. This caused many people who relied on the fishing industry to struggle to earn a living and provide enough food. The oil spill impacted 32 thousand people whose livelihoods depended on the fishing industry. In addition, it was hard for ships to get in and out of the Prince William's Sound due to the large cleanup effort so many resources were unable to get in and out of the community.

Impact on Economics (Profit)

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In total the costs to clean and recover from this tragic event were over $7 billion. The company of Exxon spent almost $4 billion to clean up the Prince William's Sound. Exxon was later required to pay $507.5 million in lawsuits and fines. The fishing economy lost about $31 million in profit in the years following the oil spill due to the lack of fish. Tourism also tanked during the year following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. For Central Alaskan coasts, tourism decreased by 8% and for Southwest Alaskan coasts, tourism decreased by 35% over the years following.

Impact on the Surrounding Environment

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Around 1,300 miles (2092 kilometers) of coastline was covered in oil. About 25% of the Gulf of Alaska's water was covered in crude oil. 12 years after the oil spill (2001) 91 sites along the coast of the Prince William's Sound were surveyed and over half of them still had oil in their soil and surrounding landscapes. Year later studies of the surrounding environment also showed that the waters are warming and ice levels are reducing as a direct result of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

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Impact on Animals

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Overall there were 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 orcas, and billions of salmon and herrings were killed by the oil. A report from 25 years after the oil spill shows that there are still around 4 species that have an unknown status in terms of recovery. The crude oil climbed its way up the food chain through fish and other sea creatures ingesting it then getting eaten by other animals who then had oil in their systems. Animals died from both direct and indirect exposure to crude oil for many years following the disaster.

Solution and Cleanup Process

834914 — 2025-08-24 22:51:59 UTC

The main cleanup efforts and techniques were those of technocentric and ecocentric belief systems. The company of Exxon was tasked with funding and supplying most of the cleanup effort. They used new technologies like Skimmers (skimmed the oil off the water's surface) and Vacuum Trucks (suck oil from the beaches and water). The cleanup efforts started within the same day as the spill but it took many hours of the oil actively spilling before anything was started. This event was mainly addressed outside of cleanup efforts through environmental activism and lawsuits against large oil companies such as Exxon. Overall the oil was mainly cleaned up, but there is still some oil lingering throughout the coasts and water.

How did people's views change?

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The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is important to environmental history because it is one of the worst oil spills in US history. It also brought up ideas of how bad environmental destruction could be straight to people's homes across the nation through news. Corporations also began to understand the economic downfalls that come with environmental disasters. Through the next few years many scientists started studies about the impacts of events like this on the environment. These studies led people to better understand the long-term impacts of oil spills and how the oil can linger for decades. Additionally, in 1990 the United States passed the Oil Pollution Act leading to better spill prevention and clean up techniques and required double-hull designs for all oil tankers.

How does it relate to other events?

834914 — 2025-08-24 23:16:36 UTC

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill was a wake up call for how bad environmental impacts can be and led to stricter regulations. These stricter regulations helped lessen the impacts of oil spills that happened later on. Technology like the oil Skimmers and Vacuum Trucks were used in various other oil spill situations around the world including the Prestige Oil Spill in Spain (2002), the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010), and the Norilsk Diesel Spill in Russia (2020).

Interesting Facts

834914 — 2025-08-24 23:19:33 UTC

1. The Prince William's Sound was considered one of the cleanest ecosystems in North America before this oil spill.

2. Some of the cleanup methods like High Pressure Washing delayed natural recovery by killing many microscopic organisms.

3. Valdez, Alaska, a town with only 5,000 residents, has over 11,000 people including workers, scientists, and news crews during cleanup.

4. Pockets of oil can still be found on some beaches in the Prince William's Sound.

834914 — 2025-08-24 23:22:26 UTC