CASE STUDY

March 24th, 1989 Prince Williams Sound, Gulf of Alaska

Largely unused area, but was a popular shipping lane.

The Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker en route from Valdez, Alaska to Los Angeles, California, ran aground on Bligh Reef. The tanker was outside its normal shipping lanes in an attempt to avoid ice. Within six hours of the grounding, approximately 10.9 million gallons spilled into the ocean of its 53 million gallon cargo.

Possible Causes
The third mate failed to properly maneuver the vessel,

due to the ship being on autopilot. The master failed to provide navigation watch, possibly due to the impairment of alcohol. Exxon Shipping Company failed to supervise the master and provide a rested and sufficient crew for the Exxon Valdez. The U.S. Coast Guard failed to provide an effective vessel traffic system.

Poor Clean up response The first three days after the Exxon Valdez oil spill , no clean up was initialized by Exxon although there was nearly ideal weather for oil recovery. Reasons: Equipment wasn't ready for booming or skimming. Exxon was concerned about offloading the remaining oil from the ship. Boats and crews were ready to work but oil-containment and recovery equipment was not available. For several days, oil continued to pour out of the tanker Local Fishermen, began the clean up initiative prior to Exxon involvement.

Three days after the spill, much of the oil was converted by wind-driven mixing of the oil and sea water into an emulsion (mousse)
Couldnt burn Difficult to remove from the

surface of the sea or from shoreline.

Not until 3 weeks after the spill, the White House federalized the cleanup effort.

METHODS:
On The Water: Boom, Burning, Dispersants, Skimming
On The Beach: Bioremediation, Chemical Cleaning, Hot Water and High Pressure, Manual Treatment, Mechanical Treatment

BOOM
Used as a barrier, deflector, absorbent and

corral for collected oil. During the EVOS, a crew of 6 cleaned 1,000 feet of boom a day

SKIMMING Over 260 skimmers were purchased. At any given time at least 50 were being used. Principal of skimmers: oil floats on surface of water and skimmers are designed to take oil off top of water, separate it from most of water that is also collected and hold it in a storage tank.

BURNING
Igniting volatile gases in oil to

be reduced to tarry residue. However, massive detrimental environmental effects Burning was not used because oil was to far spread when clean up started.

DISPERSANTS
Chemicals that break-up oil into smaller and smaller

concentrations. Was ineffective to EVOS because of the time it took for Exxon to get approval or use. By the time they got approval, it was too late and ineffective because purpose of dispersants is to prevent oil from reaching the shoreline. By this time, it had already done so.

BIOREMEDIATION
Application of fertilizers to increase the number of oil-eating

microbes. Psuedomonas aeruginosa was used for the bioremediation, but was the progress was slow. To promote the acceleration of microbe production nitrogen and phosphorus was added to the shorelines. First application July 1989. By the end of the summer, up to 110 miles of beaches had been treated with bioremediation. Very effective method.

BIOREMEDIATION CONT..

Oxidation of toluene to catechol by Psuedomonas aeruginosa.

CHEMICAL CLEANERS Chemical produced by Exxon: Corexit 9580A (kerosene with the aromatics taken out) COREXIT 9580A is used on shorelines in fresh or salt water. It is effective on all types of oil including heavily weathered and emulsified oil containing up to 50 percent water. However, Corexit was not effective enough considering its environmental effects to move beyond testing. Not enough information regarding its toxicity was available at the time.

Hot Water & High Pressure

can be skimmed off. Full scale hot water washing became the standard shoreline treatment of EVOS oiled beaches Created controversy because it is extremely harsh on beaches - it cooks all life leaving a dead shoreline. Very debated cleanup method 150 miles of beaches were washed, but was argued it did more harm than good.

MANUAL TREATMENT
Use of shovels, rakes,

absorbents, and hand to clean beach segments of pooled oil, oily finegrained sediment, and oily debris. Used on beaches where oiling was light.

MECHANICAL TREATMENT
Tractors, backhoes, front-end loaders, and

other machines were used to remove oil from beaches. Used in 1990 and limited amount in 1991.

13% settled in subtidal sediment 6% recovered from beaches during cleanup 2% weathered on intertidal shoreline 1% remained in water column

Table 5. Fate of the Exxon-Valdez Oil Source: Reference 7 Process Evaporation and photolysis Dispersion (water column) Floating Beached Skimmed March 1989 June 1989 June 1992

10%

18%

20%

4% 84% 0% 2%

28% 0% 48% 6%

38% 0% 34% 8%

* 50% biodegraded on beaches & in water column 13% settled in subtidal sediment 6% recovered from beaches during cleanup 2% weathered on intertidal shoreline 1% remained in water column

Ecological Immediate
Oiling of fur or feathers loss of insulating capacity and
death hypothermia, smothering, drowning, and ingestion of toxic hydrocabons.

Mortalities a few days after 250,000500,000 seabirds 2,8005,000 sea otters approximately 12 river otters 300 harbour seals 250 bald eagles 22 orcas and billions of salmon and herring eggs

Ecological Long term

continues to visibly leach from a few beaches, as on Smith Island. Bivalves, such as mussels, are still contaminated by oil due to their ability to contain hydrocarbons in their tissues
Has a great effect on the animals which each them (sea otters, birds, etc)

Species Recovery status as of 2002

***As time passes it becomes more difficult to separate natural changes from oil-spill impacts

Major Legal Changes

barrel tax on oil to create a $1 billion per spill cleanup fund. Ship Escort and Response Vessel System (SERVS)
Two vessels escort the tanker for 60 miles to the ocean entrance to PWS , at least one ship is equipped: oil skimmers, containment boom, oil dispersants, and oil storage tanks.

Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC) 5 regional spill centers each equipped to handle a spill of 200K barrels. Double-hulled tankers Total spill cost for Exxon = $2.1 billion in clean up costs, 300

million dollars to business in PWS affected by spill, $1 billion in state and federal settlement fees (used for environmental studies)

Exxon Valdez oil spill. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill NOAA National Ocean Service Education: Prince william's Oily Mess. http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/oilymess/welcome.html

Oil Spill Events - Management Issues and Strategies. http://134.225.80.212/gg327/sgu03pjd/case_studies.htm

Hard Aground Introduction. http://www.adn.com/evos/pgs/intro.html

A Case Study of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill of 1989.

15 years later, Exxon Valdez oil spill lingers. http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2189 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. http://library.thinkquest.org/10867/intro/gallery/index.shtml