Title: Exxon Valdez oil spill | Response, Animals, & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Exxon Valdez oil spill
Exxon Valdez oil spill
environmental disaster, Prince William Sound, Alaska, United States [1989]
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Exxon Valdez oil spill

Content: After evidence suggested that Joseph J. Hazelwood, the ship’s captain, had been drinking before the accident, Exxon terminated his employment. In 1990 the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act in direct response to the Exxon Valdez accident. Among other measures, the act created procedures for responding to future oil spills, established the legal liabilities of responsible parties, and set a schedule for banning single-hulled tankers from U.S. waters by 2015. Exxon Valdez oil spill: Naked Island
Crews using water from high-pressure hoses to clean oil off rocks on a beach, Naked Island, Alaska, April 21, 1989. The oil had spilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez when it ran aground on a reef. Rob Stapleton—AP/Shutterstock.com
Exxon Valdez oil spill
Workers cleaning rocks coated in oil from the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker than ran aground (1989) in Prince William Sound, Alaska, U.S.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council/NOAA (ID: line1532)
The Exxon Valdez itself was repaired and returned to service but was legally prohibited by a clause in the Oil Pollution Act from ever reentering Prince William Sound. Recommissioned the Exxon Mediterranean, it worked the Mediterranean Sea until single-hulled vessels were banned from European waters. In 2008 it was converted by a Hong Kong company to an ore carrier, and in 2012, under the name Oriental Nicety, it was sold for scrapping in Alang, India.