EXXON VALDEZ OIL SPILL

Environmental Tragedy

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound was known as

Alaska’s “Emerald Jewel” because of its crystal clear waters.

The Sound was home to more than 10,000 sea otters along its thousand mile rocky shoreline.

Valdez, Alaska is located on the northern edge of the sound and marks the end of the 800 mile pipeline pumped through Alaska. It is one of the busiest seaports in Alaska.

Supertankers Supertankers arrive from all over to fill

their enormous hulls with millions of gallons of crude oil.

There are over 3,200 supertankers in the world that are used to transport oil to refineries where it is made into useful products.

They are called super because they are over 900 feet long and over 150 feet wide.

Some of these ships carry over 70 million gallons at a time.

The Oil Spill March 22, 1989

The Exxon Valdez arrived in Valdez to fill up before heading out to a refinery in California.

March 23, 1989 The ship left the terminal with the harbor

pilot in control to guide it through the treacherous waters of the harbor.

The captain stayed in his cabin during this time.

Right before reaching Rocky Point, the captain returned to the bridge.

March 23, 1989 The ship reached Rocky Point and the harbor

pilot left the Exxon Valdez and the captain took control.

The captain notified the Coast Guard of the possibility of moving into the inbound lane to avoid icebergs.

The captain contacted the Coast Guard again to say the ship had reduced speed which could impact the ETA (estimated time of arrival) to Naked Island.

The captain turned the ship over to the 3rd mate at 11:50 and told him to make a right turn back into the outbound lane once they reached Busby Island. He then went to his cabin.

March 23, 1989 At Busby Island, the 3rd mate ordered

the helmsman to turn the tanker to the right as ordered by the captain.

The ship’s rudder didn’t respond, but the 3rd mate didn’t realize it.

The 3rd mate ordered the helmsman to steer the ship to the right again, but the ship didn’t respond.

A lookout in the pilothouse reported a flashing red buoy near Bligh Reef on the right side (when it should have been on the ship’s left side).

March 23, 1989 At this point, they realize the auto pilot

was on and that was why the ship wasn’t responding.

The 3rd mate turned off the auto pilot and ordered the helmsman to turn the rudder full right.

For 3 minutes, they tried to get the ship to turn but due to its size, they couldn’t.

The ship hit the a pinnacle of rock on Bligh Reef .

March 24, 1989 Just a few minutes later, the Exxon Valdez hit a

second pinnacle, ripping gashes in the hull and rupturing 10 of the 15 cargo tanks.

The Captain’s Return After the ship hit the first pinnacle, the captain

ran to the bridge. He slowed the engines and took other

measures to keep the ship from sliding off the reef.

He didn’t notify the Coast Guard until 20 minutes had passed.

March 24-25, 1989 After 3 hours, ship personnel reported a

loss of 6 million gallons of oil. There was no oil containment equipment

on board, so there was no way to stop oil from gushing into the water.

12 hours later the authorities were able to get an oil boom in place around the supertanker to try to contain the oil.

Within the first 48 hours of the accident, 11 million gallons of oil had spilled.

March 26, 1989 66 hours after the Exxon Valdez ran

aground, the weather changed from calm to rising winds.

This blew apart the few oil booms that they had in place to contain the oil and it was released into the water as well.

March 27, 1989 Winds were moving in excess of 70 miles

per hour which drove the oil slick 35-40 miles into the Southwestern sections of Prince William Sound.

All efforts to contain the oil at this point have failed.

The oil slick is now considered to be out of control.

It is being called the largest oil spill in U.S. history.