Oil dispersants Alaska had fewer than 4,000 gallons of dispersants available at the time of the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill, and no aircraft with which to dispense them. The dispersants introduced were relatively ineffective due to insufficient wave action to mix the oil and water, and their use was shortly abandoned. A report by David Kirby for TakePart found that the main component of the Corexit 9527 formulation used during Exxon Valdez cleanup, 2-butoxyethanol, was identified as "one of the agents that caused liver, kidney, lung, nervous system, and blood disorders among cleanup crews in Alaska following the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" spill."
1989 Narragansett Bay oil spill planned, had not taken on a harbor pilot, and shortly before she ran aground, Captain Georgudis had sent both his first officer and watchman away from the bridge to work on other tasks, which the NTSB judged left the ship "without a qualified deck watch officer for several minutes prior to the grounding." 1989 Narragansett Bay oil spill On June 23, 1989, several hundred thousand gallons of fuel oil were spilled at the mouth of the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island after the tanker MV "World Prodigy" ran aground on a reef near Aquidneck Island. "World Prodigy", a long ship