Exxon Valdez Diego, California. She was a relatively new tanker at the time of the spill, and was delivered to Exxon on December 16, 1986. At the time of the spill, "Exxon Valdez" was employed to transport crude oil from the Alyeska consortium's pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska, to the lower 48 states of the United States. At the time it ran aground, the vessel was carrying about 201,000 m³ (53.1 million gallons) of oil. After the spill, the vessel was towed to San Diego, arriving on June 10, 1989, and repairs were started on June 30, 1989. Approximately 1,600 tons of
Exxon Valdez steel were removed and replaced that July, totaling US$30 million of repairs to the tanker. Its single-hull design remained unaltered. The Exxon Valdez spill occurred under President George H. W. Bush, whose EPA Administrator William K. Reilly played a significant role in mobilizing presidential support for action to contain and clean up the spill. Litigation was filed on behalf of 38,000 litigants. In 1994, a jury awarded plaintiffs US $287 million in compensatory damages and US $5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit Court reduced the punitive damages to US $2.5 billion. Exxon then appealed the