Following the '' Exxon Valdez '' spill , the United States passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 ( OPA-90 ) , which excluded single-hull tank vessels of 5,000 gross tons or more from US waters from 2010 onward , apart from those with a double bottom or double sides , which may be permitted to trade to the United States through 2015 , depending on their age . Following the sinkings of ( 1999 ) and '' Prestige '' ( 2002 ) , the European Union passed its own stringent anti-pollution packages ( known as Erika I , II , and III ) , which also require all tankers entering its waters to be double-hulled by 2010 . The Erika packages are controversial because they introduced the new legal concept of " serious negligence "
Prestige
Prestige oil spill
Oil tanker