Twenty-five years ago on March 24 , the oil tanker Exxon Valdez slammed into Bligh Reef and spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into the cold , clear waters of Alaska 's Prince William Sound -- one of the `` last best places '' on Earth . The oil charged through Prince William Sound and out into the Gulf of Alaska , damaging more than 1,300 miles of some of the most remote , wild shoreline in this country . This happened 25 years ago , so we might note the anniversary as we do any other historical event . That , however , would imply that the oil spill is over . It 's not , and likely never will be . The sound 's coastal ecosystem is permanently damaged . Thousands of gallons of Exxon Valdez oil still pollute the beaches ; this oil is still toxic and still hurting the ecosystem near the shore . The government considers , as of 2010 , only 13 of the 32 monitored wildlife populations , habitats and resource services that were injured in the spill as fully `` recovered '' or `` very likely recovered . '' Some are still listed today as `` not recovering . '' This includes a pod of orcas , which lost 15 of its 22 members after the spill , and has not produced a calf since . Given only one older female is left , scientists appear certain that this unique pod of orcas will go extinct -- it 's just a matter of time . The government conclusion is that `` there appears to be no hope for recovery . '' The `` not recovering '' list also includes Pacific herring , one of the sound 's keystone species . Once the source of a vibrant commercial fishery , herring declined so precipitously that a fishery closed , and has not reopened . Eight inches long , herring once swam in schools of a million or more , a sudden flash of their silver undersides confusing predators . In April , their spawning turned the bays and lagoons milky white . More than 40 species -- bald eagles , brown bears , seals , humpback whales , tufted puffins , murres -- depend on these small fish . Those of us who knew the sound before the spill , the `` bright and spacious wonderland '' described a century ago by John Muir 's expedition , and who spend time in the magnificent coastal wilderness that remains , chafe at the idea of passing this 25th anniversary off as merely a historical event , of simply noting the date and then returning to business as usual . Persistent oil poisoning , and a cascade of ecological effects , continue . There 's not much we can do now for Prince William Sound , short of protecting it from more harm . But we can keep from repeating our mistakes elsewhere . This is , after all , why we pay attention to history . Unfortunately , we still have n't learned the biggest lesson of all from the Exxon Valdez oil spill : The only real solution is to stop using so much oil . Whether it 's Prince William Sound or the Gulf of Mexico , seldom is more than 10 % of the spilled oil recovered . This will be especially true in Arctic waters . And regardless of how safe we make oil drilling , tankers , or pipelines , we 'll never reduce spill risk to zero . But the larger reason to reduce our dependence on oil is this : Even if we as a society do n't care about oil spills destroying natural environments , we 've got to care -- eventually we will all care -- about how burning this oil is destroying our environment through climate change . As the south coast of Alaska struggles to recover from one spill a quarter of a century later , Alaska 's polar bears are drowning from lack of Arctic sea ice . It 's a sad irony that the push for Arctic oil drilling has reached an all-time high . Right now , as the polar bears ' ice shrinks , we are trying at a fever pitch to pull the very substance out of their ocean home that , when burned , will destroy their ocean home . No wonder one of OPEC 's founders , Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso , once called oil `` el excremento del diablo , '' or the devil 's excrement . The best use of this anniversary is to do better , both by ourselves and the rest of the animal world with whom we share our planet . Halting oil drilling in the Arctic would be a clear first step toward doing better . It 's time for President Obama to take steps away from the `` all of the above '' energy policy and move us forward on a path to a clean energy future .
25 years ago , Exxon Valdez spilled 11 billion gallons of oil into Canada 's Prince William Sound . Marybeth Johnson : Animals , coastal ecosystem damaged ; oil still pollutes water . She says no matter how we make ships , tankers , pipelines safe , risk will never be eliminated . Holleman : We need to reduce dependence on oil ; stopping drilling in the Arctic is a first step .