Oil and Wilderness in Alaska: Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and National Policy Dynamics by George J. Busenberg

Author:George J. Busenberg [Busenberg, George J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781589016620
Google: eWirAAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 17870933
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Published: 2013-08-16T11:45:34+00:00

The Exxon Valdez Disaster

The chain of events leading to the Exxon Valdez oil spill began when the tanker Exxon Valdez departed from the Valdez oil terminal with a cargo of North Slope oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline one evening in 1989. The captain of the Exxon Valdez ordered a course change to avoid ice in the waters of Prince William Sound. The site of the oil terminal in Prince William Sound had been chosen to reduce the risks posed by marine ice to oil tankers, but significant marine ice hazards were still present in the region due to a tidewater glacier that frequently discharged ice into the waters of Prince William Sound (The Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, and Friends of the Earth 1972). Tankers in Prince William Sound normally traveled along designated routes (referred to as traffic lanes) that were designed to avoid navigational hazards, but ice in the water could drift into those traffic lanes and pose a hazard to the tankers. This marine ice hazard was particularly acute at night when the ice was difficult or impossible to see. The captain of the Exxon Valdez ordered a departure from the traffic lanes to avoid the ice. The captain then left the bridge under the control of other members of the crew after giving instructions to change course to reenter the traffic lanes once the Exxon Valdez was clear of the ice. The crew members in control of the tanker subsequently failed to change course in time to avoid grounding on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound. The grounding on Bligh Reef punctured most of the cargo tanks of the Exxon Valdez. Subsequent investigations found that the Exxon Valdez disaster was caused by crew error, and that alcohol impairment and crew fatigue contributed to the disaster (Alaska Oil Spill Commission 1990; NTSB 1990).

The Exxon Valdez spill revealed the inadequacies of the systems for oil spill prevention and response in Prince William Sound. The navigational error that led to the Exxon Valdez disaster was not detected by the U.S. Coast Guard radar tracking system in Prince William Sound. There was no tug escort vessel in position to aid the Exxon Valdez in a course correction at the time of the navigational error or to assist in oil spill response after the tanker grounded. The oil spill response equipment then available in Prince William Sound was not ready for swift deployment to contain the spill, and that equipment did not have the capacity to recover and store the volume of oil spilled. Alternative response methods were tested on the Exxon Valdez oil spill (including the use of dispersants designed to break up the spilled oil in the water and attempts to burn the spilled oil), but these tests accomplished little. A storm subsequently dispersed the oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez. Approximately 11 million gallons of oil from the Exxon Valdez spilled into the sea and spread across more than one thousand miles of Alaskan coastline, causing massive wildlife casualties.

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