THE EXXON VALDEZ DISASTER

When we think of Alaska, most of us think of a far-away land in the frozen north-west of America. A land of clear sea and skies, and great natural beauty.

Alaska is also a land of great natural wealth. It has four great industries: fishing, forests, tourism and oil. On the south coast of Alaska is the port of Valdez, and from here most of Alaska's oil is taken to California and other parts of the USA.

On 24th March 1989, Captain Jeff Hazelwood was in command of an oil tanker which had the same name as the port of Valdez. The tanker was owned by the Exxon oil company, so it was usually called the Exxon Valdez. Captain Hazelwood was an experienced seaman who had loved the sea and sailing since he was a child. When he was thirty-two, he became the youngest man to take command of an Exxon oil tanker.

Although Captain Hazelwood was an excellent seaman, he had one major problem: he drank too much. In fact, at the time of the Valdez disaster, Captain Hazelwood was not allowed to drive a car because the police had caught him drunk while driving. However, Captain Hazelwood was still allowed to be in command of a ship.

The sea off the coast of Alaska is always dangerous because it is full of small islands and rocks, some of which lie hidden under the water. In winter and spring, there is another danger: ice.

The Exxon Valdez started its journey in the late evening of 24th March 1989. At first, Captain Hazelwood was controlling the ship. Later he went to his cabin to do some paperwork.

Just after midnight, the Exxon Valdez hit a group of rocks called Bligh Reef. The Exxon Valdez had five holes in its side – one of the holes was two metres wide by six metres long. Fifty million litres of oil started to flow out of the ship and into the sea. The captain sent a message: "We're losing some oil and we're going to be here for a while."

Unfortunately, the clean-up operation did not begin immediately. A special boat was supposed to be ready for emergencies, but it had been damaged by a storm. So the clean-up began fifteen hours after the oil-spill was first reported. The first two days after the spill had been calm and still; but by the time all the necessary equipment was in place, the weather had turned stormy. Strong winds quickly moved the oil to other parts of the sea, and the head of the Exxon oil company told newspaper and television reporters that the company had a real problem on its hands.

The oil from the Valdez disaster polluted nearly 1,700 kilometres of Alaska's coast, and it covered 4,800 square kilometres of water. It was the worst oil-spill in American history. Millions of fish, 300,000 sea birds, and thousands of sea-otters died. The bodies of sixteen whales were found. Some animals and birds died from cold, others died from hunger, since twenty-five per cent of the plankton of the sea were destroyed in the disaster. Plankton are tiny, tiny little plants and animals which live in the sea and which are a very important part of the food chain: plankton are eaten by small fish, which are eaten by bigger fish, and so on.

It is easy to try to blame one person for the Exxon Valdez disaster. In fact, the disaster was the result of mistakes made by many different people: people in the Exxon oil company, people on land, and people on the tanker. Perhaps the greatest mistake was the view of people in the oil industry who said, "There has never been a disaster, so a disaster will never happen."

The Exxon Valdez disaster had a great effect on the oil industry. Every nation uses energy for transport and industry, and to make electricity. That energy must come from somewhere – from the sun, wind, water, oil, gas, or nuclear power. The need for cheap energy means that oil companies are always trying to keep costs down. This often means that fewer people work longer hours, and they may therefore not work so well. This leads to the possibility of serious accidents.

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