the exxon valdez oil spill happened at prince william sound, alaska.
the exxon valdez oil spill happened at prince william sound, alaska.
where did the exxon valdez oil spill happen?
prince william sound , alaska
the "exxon valdez" oil spill occurred in prince william sound, alaska, march 24, 1989, when "exxon valdez", an oil tanker owned by exxon shipping company, bound for long beach, california, struck prince william sound's bligh reef, west of tatitlek, alaska, at 12:04 a.m. local time and spilled (or 37,000 metric tonnes) of crude oil over the next few days. it is considered to be one of the worst human-caused environmental disasters. the "valdez" spill is the second largest in us waters, after the 2010 "deepwater horizon" oil spill, in terms of volume released. prince william sound's remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing response plans. the region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. the oil, originally extracted at the prudhoe bay oil field, eventually affected of coastline, of which were heavily or moderately oiled.
exxon valdez oil spill
on march 24, 1989, the exxon valdez oil tanker struck bligh reef in prince william sound, spilling an estimated 260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil. the exxon valdez oil spill was a major environmental disaster for the state. governor steve cowper, who held office at the time of the spill, appointed walter parker as the chairman of the alaska oil spill commission in 1989. the alaska oil spill commission was created by the alaska state government to investigate the causes of the exxon valdez oil spill. under parker, the commission issued 52 recommendations to improve national, state and oil industry policies in the wake of the exxon valdez disaster. one the recommendations called for a creation of a citizen committee to oversee the oil industry in the prince william sound, which led to the formation of the prince william sound regional citizens' advisory council. the united states congress adopted 50 of the committee's 52 recommendations into the oil pollution act of 1990.
walter b. parker