Lessons Learned: Exxon Valdez 26 Years Later
Twenty-six years ago, the Exxon Valdez ran aground the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, spilling an estimated 257,000 barrels of crude oil and causing the 54th largest oil spill in history. The tanker was transporting Alaskan crude from Port Valdez, which is supplied by the Alyeska Pipeline. The pipeline is one of the largest systems in the world and commonly referred to as one of mankind’s greatest engineering feats.
In 1987 and 1988, the Exxon Valdez and Captain Joseph Hazelwood, its master at the time of the accident, earned safety awards from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
The Alyeska Pipeline Company’s oil spill contingency plan was approved by the state of Alaska, despite numerous drills that were deemed failures. The spill response plan, which dealt with a spill up to 8.4 million gallons, was considered highly unlikely by Alyeska. And, the pipeline company went on to say that the chances of a catastrophic event of this magnitude would be greatly reduced because the tankers calling on Port Valdez were of U.S. flag and were mastered and piloted by U.S.-licensed seamen.
A few months before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, there was a spill at the Valdez Terminal from the tanker Thompson Pass, which tested the effectiveness of Alyeska’s oil response capacity. The spill drew attention to the plan’s problems and the company vowed to increase its response capacity and bring in high-tech cleanup vessels.
However, before the Exxon Valdez oil spill, ports—including the Valdez port—had only ever planned for “the most likely spill,” which encompassed an estimate of 10,000 barrels. In fact, there was not area of the U.S. that was prepared to respond to an incident equal to the 257,000 barrels the Exxon Valdez spilled into the prestine Prince Willan Sound on March 24, 1989.
The Alaskan spill covered an more than 1,300 miles of coastline, of which more than 200 miles was heavily oiled. It is also estimated that about 250,000 birds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, 22 killer whales billions of salmon and herring eggs were killed. Today, the Alaskan spill area is one of the most intensely studied places on the planet to analysis the long term effects of oil pollution on the environment.
The incident brought about significant and much-needed changes in maritime regulation regarding prevention and oil spill response. The maritime industry was also forced develop contingiency plans for large oil spills and create regional and national response organizations. The event resulted in the Oil Prevention Act of 1990 (OPA90) and the formation of national response groups like the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), the Marine Preservation Association (MPA) and the National Response Corporation (NRC), along with thousands of contracted responders around the 96,000 miles of U.S. coastline as well as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Caribbean.
The Exxon Valdez incident promoted amendments to the IMO’s MARPOL Convention that called for double-hulled tankers by 2015, which was also a mandate of the U.S. OPA90. MARPOL also required the International Safety Management (ISM) Code, which were adopted in 1993, and the 1995 amendments to the Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Seafarers (STCW), which further set standards for deck officers on the bridge of a vessel.
OPA90 also expanded the federal government's ability to oversee oil spill prevention as well as establishing the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which created a one billion dollars per spill incident. The act also create criminal liablity for corporate executvies for knowingly hiring incompetent personnel and operating inferior vessels. The IMO’s Civil Liability Convention (CLC) and the OPA Trust Fund divide financial and criminal liabliity between the ship owner and the oil industry. And, oil spill claimants are now guaranteed pay regardless of fault.
Twenty-six years later, the Exxon Valdez oil spill is remembered for as much as its maritime regulation reform it established as for the immense damage the accident inflicted on the environment. As a result of the Exxon Valdez, the oil industry is better equipped to deal with large spill and the liabilites associated with the transportation of oil in the United States, as is the global maritime industry.