Title: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - HISTORY
Headings: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Contents
Oil Spill Cleanup
Environmental And Economic Impacts
Oil Pollution Act of 1990
Fate of Exxon Valdez
Sources
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Content: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill - HISTORY
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Updated: Mar 23, 2021
Original: Mar 9, 2018
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
Author: History.com Editors
Contents
Oil Spill Cleanup
Environmental And Economic Impacts
Oil Pollution Act of 1990
Fate of Exxon Valdez
Sources
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was a manmade disaster that occurred when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by the Exxon Shipping Company, spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. It was the worst oil spill in U.S. history until the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. The Exxon Valdez oil slick covered 1,300 miles of coastline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, otters, seals and whales. Nearly 30 years later, pockets of crude oil remain in some locations. After the spill, Exxon Valdez returned to service under a different name, operating for more than two decades as an oil tanker and ore carrier. On the evening of March 23, 1989, Exxon Valdez left the port of Valdez, Alaska, bound for Long Beach, California, with 53 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude oil onboard. At four minutes after midnight on March 24, the ship struck Bligh Reef, a well-known navigation hazard in Alaska’s Prince William Sound.