Gulf War oil spill place it several times the size (by volume) of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The "New York Times" reported that a 1993 study sponsored by UNESCO, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States found the spill did "little long-term damage": About half the oil evaporated, were recovered and to washed ashore, mainly in Saudi Arabia. More recent scientific studies have tended to disagree with this assessment. Marshlands and mud tidal flats continued to contain large quantities of oil, over nine years later, and full recovery is likely to take decades. Dr.
1969 Santa Barbara oil spill which devastated coastal areas in both England and France, and the burning of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, the Santa Barbara spill was the largest oil spill ever in U.S. waters, and its occurrence during a fierce battle between local residents and the very oil company responsible for the spill only made the controversy more intense, the battle more public, and the anti-oil cause seem more valid to a wider segment of the populace. In the several years after the spill, more environmental legislation was passed than in any other similar period in U.S. history.