Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - A manmade Disaster

 

                In the maritime industry incidents and accidents are quite often among which many accidents are due to man-made errors and failures leading to dangerous disasters to the marine environment. Many accidents happened out at sea that includes fire, collision, grounding, oil pill, etc. Exxon Valdez Oil spill seems to be one of the huge spills recorded in history. After the Oil Spill from Exxon Valdez, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90), which President George H.W.Bush signed into law that year. 

Exxon Valdez Vessel Information:

                    Exxon Valdez was a VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier) Oil Tanker, 301 meters in length and can able to transport up to 235,000 cubic meters of cargo at a sustained speed of 16.25 Knots (30 Km/hr). It was a single hull type tanker constructed by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California and was owned by Exxon Shipping Company from 1986 to 1989. 

Exxon Valdez Accident - Oil Spill:

                    On March 24, 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck the Bligh Reef in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska leading to the biggest maritime disaster at that time. The vessel was en route to long beach, California from the Alyeska consortium's pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska. It was carrying 53 million gallons of crude oil on board, on 24th March early morning, the vessel struck Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound causing some 11 million gallons of crude oil to spill into the water.

Causes of Oil Spill:

                    Exxon Valdez ran aground on the reef under the Command of Captain Joseph Hazelwood. As per the report, the Captain altered the ship's course to avoid icebergs. At 11.53 pm Hazelwood gave control of the ship to the Third Mate, Gregory Cousins, who tried to steer back to the original course. Cousins with the helm in his hand didn't see the Bligh Reef since the vessel's radar was broken. So, on March 24, 1989, at 12.04 am, the Exxon Valdez collided with the Bligh Reef puncturing 8 out of its 11 tanks.

Investigation Reports & Trail:

                    According to the reports, Captain Joseph Hazelwood altered the vessel's course to avoid icebergs and handed over the ship's control to the Third mate, who was not professionally qualified to take control of the vessel. Unfortunately, the third mate failed to manoeuvre the vessel properly and ended up colliding with the reef. As per reports, it was also revealed that captain Hazelwood was under the influence of alcohol and he was asleep in his bunk during the time of the accident. After a year-long investigation and trial, Hazelwood was acquitted of being drunk during the voyage. However, the captain was convicted of violation and negligence, fined $50,000 and sentenced to serve 1,000 hours of community service. 

Oil Spill Cleanup:

                    This Oil spill from Exxon Valdez seems to be massive and cleaning up and containing 11 million gallons of oil is not an easy task. Initial attempts made to contain the oil failed and in months that followed, the oil slick spread eventually covering about 1,300 miles of coastline. Exxon employees, federal responders and more than 11,ooo Alaska residents worked to clean up the oil spill.

                    Cleanup workers skimmed oil from water's surface, sprayed oil dispersant chemicals in the water and shore, washed oiled beaches with hot water and rescued and cleaned animals trapped in the oil. Exxon paid about $2 billion in cleanup costs and $1.8 billion for habitat restoration and personal damages due to the spill. The aggressive washing with high-pressure, hot water hoses was effective in removing the oil, but still, it did even more ecological damage to the plants and animals. Prince William Sound has been a pristine wilderness before the spill, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill incident it killed approximately 250,000 sea birds, 3,000 otters, 300 seals, 250 bald eagles and 22 killer whales. Many fishermen went bankrupt and the economies of small shoreline towns suffered a lot in the following years.

What Happened to Exxon Valdez after the Oil Spill?

                    Exxon Valdez, after the major oil spill on March 24, 1989, the vessel was towed to San Diago, the vessel arrived on June 10,1989 and repairs were started on June 30,1989 and has been sold to Sea river Maritime after repairs. The ship began running oil transport routes in Europe, where single-hulled oil tankers were still allowed. The vessel was renamed Exxon Mediterranean, then as SeaRiver Mediterranean and finally as S/R Mediterranean. In 2002, the European Union banned single-hulled tankers and the former tanker moved to Asian Waters. Exxon was sold to a Hong Kong-based shipping company. The company converted the old oil tanker to an ore carrier, renaming it as Dong Feng Ocean. In 2010, the vessel collided with another bulk carrier in the yellow sea and was once again severely damaged. Finally, the ship was renamed once more after the collision as Oriental Nicety, later in the year 2012 the vessel for sold for scrap to an Indian Company.