Walter B. Parker Act, which was signed into law in 1980 by U.S. President Jimmy Carter. 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.
Ashland oil spill Ashland oil spill The Ashland oil spill was an oil spill that occurred on January 2, 1988 into the Monongahela River near the town of Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, approximately 20 miles upstream from the city of Pittsburgh. Ashland Oil Company Inc. (currently known as Ashland Inc.) owned a facility near the Monongahela River in Jefferson, PA (now Jefferson Hills). On January 2, 1988, a four-million gallon tank was used for the first time after being dismantled (from an Ohio location) and rebuilt in Pennsylvania. It was this tank, holding approximately 3.5 million gallons of diesel oil, that failed and collapsed,