Exxon Valdez Essay

Approximately eleven years ago, an area of Alaska's southern coast known as Prince William Sound was a disaster area. A nauseating scent of rotting carcasses and oil filtered through the air. Sea birds screamed in anguish as they fought to survive with oil drenched feathers. Under the surface billions of organisms ceased to live due to the toxicity of the inescapable wrath of the blackened water. Prince William Sound had once been a place of beauty and grace, now it was home to an environmental deathbed. The media broadcast pictures of this nearly unbearable scene throughout the world. Most people, including myself, wondered if the ecological war zone would ever recover

The Exxon Valdez oil spill which occurred in 1989, 11 to 38 million us gallon oil spill is one of environmental disaster which had polluted the water and disturbed the natural habitat (Hellawell, Trevor). This incident mainly resulted in amendment of section 311, which mainly has goals and objectives to report and document the oil spill incidents and these documented reports are used for cleanup of oil pollutants from water and to restore its natural properties.

33). Oil companies and prospectors quickly started developing oil rigs on private beaches, and in 1896, the world’s first offshore drilling rigs was originated in Summerland, California. Summerland was a tourist town known for the tranquil climate, beautiful beaches, and health resorts. As oil rigs were being constructed, drilling was often rushed and the marine water suffered ecological harm by being the dumping grounds for waste and other harmful conditions. The local community and environmentalist were increasingly becoming outraged when the well- manicure coastlines were rapidly becoming disfigured by noisy, disruptive, plastering oil rigs. During this time, all offshore activities were unregulated by the state and the only legal requirement for prospector was that they negotiate an agreement with the owner of the ocean front property of which drilling rig would be extended (Wilder, p.31).

On April 20, 2010 the largest accidental marine oil spill in human history took place in the Gulf of Mexico. The incident resulting in methane gas was released and exploded killing 11 rig workers and having a major impact on our marine wildlife.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred because “oil from the well shot up and out of the drill column under high pressure, extended on the drilling rig and exploded (wikipedia)”. The rig set on fire and later sank. BP, Transocean, along with government agency employer, all worked hard to avoid further spread of the oil.

One of the most recognized disasters regarding hazardous chemicals is the wreck of the infamous Exxon Valdez. After the oil tanker ran aground on Bligh reef in the spring of 1989, millions of liters of crude oil leaked into the Prince William Sound, off the coast of Northern Alaska causing millions of the native wildlife to die. Thankfully, it didn’t seep into the open ocean but the oil harmed not only the local Alaskan wildlife it also harmed the reputation and honesty of big oil corporations such as the Exxon shipping company, the livelihoods of thousands of the local fishermen and the water quality of the Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez

Twenty seven years ago, tragedy struck the cold Pacific waters of Bligh reef in Alaska. March 24, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill took place. It was a devastating and horrific event that took more life than you can could count within the same hour. It is said to be the cause of mischeck and improper equipment supply. The cause was so big, no one noticed it. Such a massacre of wildlife could have been avoided if only they took the time to care.

Looking back on the night of March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez left port, it seemed as though the ship had only lasted as long as it had by running on luck and hope. With the company trying to save money and the crew working on fumes, things were headed down a dark path. One of the wonderful things about being human is our ability to look back on events that have occurred and learn from them. Unfortunately for Exxon, it took a catastrophic accident like this one to show how operations could be improved and how to be better prepared for the unexpected. These events are broken down to shed light on what made the Exxon Valdez accident a mess from port departure to today.

The oil companies were held responsible because they did not train their workers for emergency procedures and did not do any emergency drills. The Ocean Ranger could have survived the storm and flooding if the crewmembers had understood how the ballast system worked. The two men working in the ballast room had never been tested for what they had learned. The senior operator had only reached the halfway point in his training, but he was promoted. The Ocean Ranger did not have enough safety equipment on board for the amount of passengers they had. Families of lost crewmembers sued the companies that owned and operated the Ocean Ranger. The companies were forced to pay millions in lawsuits.

Gill, Duane A., J. Steven Picou, and Liesel A. Ritchie. "The Exxon Valdez and BP oil spills: a

In 2001, someone fired a rifle at the pipeline, resulting in 300,000 gallons to leak out. Likewise, in 2006, a deteriorated portion of the Prudhoe Bay pipeline resulted in a leak of 270,000 gallons of oil into the area. Furthermore in the Alaskan area, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker leaked approximately 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound. This massive oil spill killed over a thousand sea otters, thousands of birds, and cost more than $2 billion dollars to recover.

Exxon Valdez was an oil tanker that crashed on the beaches of Alaska. The blame goes to the captain of the vessel, because there is proof that he was drinking at the time of the incident. By the time they had the means to clean up the spill, it had grown beyond being cleaned. The spill let loose 42 million liters of crude oil, that contaminated 1,990 kilometers of shoreline.

This paper will explain some of the effects of three legal issues and three ethical issues surrounding the London-based British Petroleum Company’s involvement in the explosion of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon and the subsequent oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico. There are many legal issues surrounding this disaster, but the three this paper will focus on are the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, maritime laws, and criminal charges

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The oil rig sank a day-and-a-half later. The spill was referred to as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and BP oil disaster. It was first said that little oil had actually leaked into the ocean but a little over a month later the estimate was 12,000-19,000 barrels of crude oil being leaked per day. Many attempts were made to stop the leak but all failed until they capped the leak on July 15, 2010, and on September 19 the federal government declared the well “effectively dead.” In the three months that it took to finally put a stop the leak, 4.9 million barrels of oil were

These social responsibilities and many other ethical issues were realized by many people when on April 20, 2010 British Petroleum had a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Also, known as the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the BP Oil Disaster, the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, or the Macondo Blowout. BP was mostly at fault, but Transocean, the rig operator, and Halliburton, the contractor,