LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
built 636 days ago
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on 24 March 1989. It is considered one of the most devastating man-made environmental disasters ever to occur at sea. As significant as the Exxon Valdez spill was, it ranks well down on the list of the world's largest oil spills in terms of volume released.[1] However, Prince William Sound's remote location (accessible only by helicopter and boat) made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing plans for response. The region was a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and sea birds. The vessel spilled 10.8 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil into the sea, and eventually covered 11,000 square miles.[2]
Source:
While the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) galvanized the Pacific Northwest and the nation, it was hardly exceptional by global standards: EVOS ranked 40th in volume among large spills worldwide between 1967 and 1994. Major oil spills have occurred, and continue to be a real risk, all along the Pacific Coast, as oil is being shipped by sea from Alaska to Puget Sound in Washington State and being drilled for off the coast of California.
Source:
Since the establishment of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (EVOS) Trustee Council, over $285 million has been spent on research and planning, resulting in over 485 peer reviewed publications and 395 final and annual reports. Publication lists are available from the Trustee council and copies of reports may be borrowed from the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services
Source:
The village of Tatitlek started oyster farming shortly before the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Rather than taking the place of subsistance resources it had lost, Tatilek considers the oysters as another resource, according to Gary Kompkoff, Tatilek village chief. (ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News)
Source:
Using a sophisticated computer simulation program, the On-Scene Spill Model (OSSM), scientists at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have attempted to account for the fate of oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez. Mass balance estimates generated from this model predict that 20% of the original spilled oil evaporated. Once evaporated, the petroleum hydrocarbons are rapidly oxidized to photolysisj products. The more toxic monoaromatic and naphthalenic components , with a half-life in air of ca. 1 day, were 99% degraded within one week. While dispersion, according to this model, accounted for as much as 23% of the spilled oil just two months after the spill, after three years less than 1% remained in the water column (except as biodegradation products) and 13% resided in subtidal sediments, mainly in the Gulf of Alaska. Although oil is less dense than water, the adsorption of oil onto suspended particulate matter creates the possibility that adhered oil can sink to the bottom.
Source:
The justices questioned lawyers for the company and nearly 33,000 victims of the Exxon Valdez disaster for 90 minutes, making only one passing reference to Exxon's record profits. The award represents less than three weeks' worth of Exxon profit, which was $11.7 billion in the last three months of 2007.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill