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.
Kirki (tanker) famous Clarke & Dawe sketch, "The Front Fell Off" from "A Current Affair". Kirki (tanker) The Kirki was a 210 metre long Greek-registered oil tanker which caught fire on 21 July 1991, 30 km west of the fishing town of Cervantes, Western Australia. The fire resulted in the ship's bow tearing off, rupturing the forward storage tanks and causing an oil spill initially estimated at 2.9 million gallons. At the time it was the worst oil spill to have occurred in Australian waters. The vessel remained afloat and traveled north to the waters off Cape Preston where oil remaining in