Oil plagues Sound 20 years after Exxon Valdez »
Posted By Eagle_Eye 9 months ago in News"This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4 percent per year," the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council stated in a report marking Tuesday's 20th anniversary of the worst oil spill in U.S. waters. "At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely."
The council's findings come two decades after the March 24, 1989 disaster, when the single-hulled Exxon tanker hit a reef, emptying its contents into Alaskan waters. The spill contaminated more than 1,200 miles of shoreline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine animals.
Captain convicted of misdemeanor
The council, made up of three state and three federal appointees, was created to administer the $900 million that Exxon paid to settle lawsuits filed after the accident, which also resulted in criminal charges against the ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood.
Hazelwood, was accused but then acquitted on a charge of being drunk at the time. He was, however, convicted of negligent discharge of oil, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to a $50,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service.
In the weeks and months following the spill, thousands of people tried to clean up the contamination. But two decades later, oil persists and is estimated to total around 20,000 gallons, according to the council. One of the lessons learned is that a spill's impacts can last a long time in a habitat with calm, cold waters like Prince William Sound, the council said.
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Eagle_Eye
I am a female who has lived a complex life with complex situations and have learned a lot from my experiences.
I love the Environment ...
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Eagle_Eye9 months ago
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This is totally the opposite of what I heard when I worked this spill washing oil soaked Otters and other wildlife.
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"oil persists in the region and, in some places, "is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill," according to the council overseeing restoration efforts"
It was suppose to dissipate and break down according to the "Authorities" of Exxon Mobile and the Government. Yet it continues to be nothing more than a HUGE "Super Fund" site with NOTHING done to resolve the contamination and curb the "Food Chain" contamination. Wildlife continues to die and peoples lively hood in the fishing industry is gone.
Yet, Exxon Mobile has RECORD profits,-
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mesodude9 months ago
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This is exactly why I don't want more nuke plants in this country. Those who are most in favor of us plopping them down all over the US don't want them in their backyards, don't want to regulate them, and they don't want to pay damages for "frivolous" lawsuits when they operate them in unsafe ways. No more nukes (or guns). ;-(
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Spadecaller9 months ago
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I don't know how one can be taught to love and respect our earth and its inhabitants after missing the lesson the first time around.
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Exxon Mobile must be run by people who worship greed - people who will always remain blind to the earth and its wonderful creatures. The world needs to be protected from them. -
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Eagle_Eye9 months ago
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Welcome, in fact it is my pleasure taking care of God's beautiful "Creatures of Creation"
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I will NEVER forget the horror I saw and will always bring it to the attention so that it will NEVER be forgotten.
Now would be the time to write the EPA about the negligence of Exxon Mobile
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flyonthewallzz9 months ago
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/ch...
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2002
"The story of the oil tanker SeaRiver Mediterranean ends, it seems, in the same inglorious cliche that besets most ships in the U.S. merchant marine. Too expensive to sail on, it was pulled from service late last month and anchored off some forgotten coastline in the Far East, perhaps to die.
But the SeaRiver Mediterranean is more than just another doomed American ship; it is perhaps the most infamous commercial vessel ever to fly the nation's flag -- or any flag.
It was, at least, in 1989, when it was still named the Exxon Valdez."-
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flyonthewallzz9 months ago
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http://web.hcsps.sa.edu.au/projects/srmediterranea...
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Eagle_Eye9 months ago
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Wonderful post fly!!!
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" it is a multibillion-dollar headache that its owners are no longer willing to bear.
"She's really had kind of a benign existence since the spill, just sailing in foreign trades without really doing anything too noteworthy," said John Straley, a former crew member and now vice president of the Exxon Seamen's Union, whose members work on ExxonMobil's vessels.
"I'm sure that's just the way the company wants it, too," Straley said. "I think they would prefer that everybody forget about the Exxon Valdez."
It is interesting how the ship really had no future after that and it wasn't the ship's fault, it was the Captains -
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flyonthewallzz9 months ago
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http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,298505,00.html
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It's one of Waterworld's few stabs at humor, but it's sailing over the heads of most viewers. Standing on the bridge of an ancient oil tanker, the villainous Deacon (Dennis Hopper) appeals to a framed photo of Joseph Hazelwood hanging on the wheelhouse wall. ''Saint Joe,'' says Hopper, ''I'm gonna do you proud.''
Thomas Russo, says Hazelwood, 48, gave the movie's producers permission to use his name and likeness ''as a joke type of thing.'' However, adds Russo, ''We were not led to believe that [Hazelwood] would be [portrayed] in a negative light. We're glad to know that he's revered. We're not so happy with what he's being revered about.''
Russo wouldn't disclose the terms of his client's Waterworld deal. A Universal Pictures source is sure that, despite the film's huge budget overruns, ''if the deal had been expensive it wouldn't have happened.'' -
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flyonthewallzz9 months ago
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/...
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Leaving a wave of controversy in its wake, one of the most visible reminders of the Bush administration's ties to big oil - the 129,000-ton Chevron tanker Condoleezza Rice - has quietly been renamed, Chevron officials acknowledged yesterday.
The unannounced decision to rechristen the tanker was made by Chevron officials in late April, after "we had been in discussions with (Rice's) office," said Gorell. Asked if Rice or the White House had specifically requested the name change, Gorell said, "that's not for me to discuss."
sorry if I drifted... -
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flyonthewallzz9 months ago
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http://www.coltoncompany.com/newsandcomment/news/2...
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EXXON VALDEZ SOLD. No announcements from ExxonMobil, naturally, but it appears that they have sold the poor old "Exxon Valdez", the fine ship that was so ill-served not only by Exxon's incompetence but also by the idiot politicians who banned her from the trade for which she was designed and built, as if the accident had been, in some mysterious way, the ship's fault. Equasis says she was sold to unknown buyers last month but the Anchorage Daily News and Pacific Maritime magazine report that the buyer is Hong Kong's Bloom Shipping - I think that should be Ever Bloom Shipping - who plan to convert her to an ore carrier, to be called "Dong Fang Ocean". May 15, 2008.
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autoprocanadaComment removed: Spammer
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PsychoHosebeastComment removed: Spammer, Abusive8 Replies
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jimdoze9 months ago
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10,800,000 gallons of oil spilled in this incident.
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"But two decades later, oil persists and is estimated to total around 20,000 gallons, according to the council."
By my arithmetic, 10,780,000 gallons have been remediated over 20 years. That doesn't make this oil spill (or any oil spill) good. But, sometimes a little simple arithmetic can be helpful in maintaining a reasonably balanced perspective. -
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cleare9 months ago
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it's stories like this that remind us why we oppose off shore drilling. it's bad enough that there are hundreds of supertankers out there; anyone of which might have an accident at any time.
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time to get off fossil fuels and onto green energy sources. and as soon as we figure out what to do with the waste, i have no problem with well-designed, and well-regulated nuclear energy. -
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Sageparadox9 months ago
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Wow EE. I was just a teen-ager when all that happened and the clean up efforts are not even close to being done. You would think after looking at this story, some would reconcider their stance on how much of a impact human life has really made on the enviroment. I forgot the Native American Chiefs name, but he said, "The world doesnt belong to us, we belong to it." We should think of that everytime we think about the land we live on, and get our food from; The air we breath, and the water which we drink. All of this we share with other forms of life that we cannot survive with out but would do much better with out us, such as trees and algea which produce oxygen for us.
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Sageparadox9 months ago
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Hazelwood, was accused but then acquitted on a charge of being drunk at the time. He was, however, convicted of negligent discharge of oil, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to a $50,000 fine and 1,000 hours of community service.
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Only a 1,000 hours. I would make serve a community service of cleaning up the mess that he created untill it was all cleaned up. -
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DarkWizard9 months ago
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Excellent post EE!...of course...
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These events are so easy to dismiss when time or location take them from our immediate memory or make the impact seem isolated. As humans we just don't seem to understand that the planet is like a living organism that can either sustain us or shrug us off if we don't respect its power. -
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Bruedaddy9 months ago
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I just don't see how ANYONE can really defend EXXON.
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They went to great lengths to NOT pay the damages awarded to the people and city.
ALL they needed to do was just do the RIGHT thing....I mean, it's not like they don't HAVE THE F'ING MONEY.
Pathetic, and people defend them....THEY are even MORE pathetic. -
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reidgator9 months ago
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Some of the critics here display a pretty good balance, keeping the focus of Exxon's incompetence and unwillingness to take appropriate responsibility for THEIR mistake.
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However, too many critics here use a cheap and hypocritical trick by "demonizing" oil and off-shore drilling and nuclear power. I guess I would have to ask these self-righteous "do-gooders", are you ready to give up your cars? How about your central AC and heating? How about the vast quantity of plastic products that are based on petroleum?
Alternatives? Most alternatives are not much better!
Corn ethanol is a lousy replacement for gasoline.
Corn starch is good replacement in some uses of plastic.
We stand a much greater chance of learning to deal with nuke waste than we do finding acceptable energy alternatives!
(BTW - why is it that liberals often point to Europe to justify their positions on issues, yet ignore the fact that Europe has embraced nuke power?)
It seems that the liberal environmentalists are the "ideological fundamentalists" in this situation.-
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StevieGee9 months ago
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You don't have to give up anything. You just have to do things smarter. Use geothermal energy to heat and cool your home. The electricity saved by that, along with a solar array, charges your electric car or plug in hybrid. You're right about ethanol. It's absurd to use food for fuel. Bio diesel, however can be made from used vegetable oil. We can do this fairly easily if the earth rapers don't get in the way.
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lloydm659 months ago
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I sure as hell wish we could shut down these big oil companies.Give me a tubing cutter,and a cracker box welder I will start making the new rides.Then,I would hope these GD,sob,M F left wing haters,and beggars would shut the f--k up.
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TonyByron9 months ago
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You're a nice person EE, but some perspective.
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20,000 gallons along 1,200 miles = 16.6 gallons per mile.
16.6 gallons per mile = .003 gallons per foot.
.003 gallons per foot = .38 ounces per foot.
Now picture 1 foot of coastline from the low tide mark to the high tide mark (including how high the waves reach). We'll be conservative and say 10 feet. That equals .038 ounces per foot.
Now some brainiac might try and figure the surface area of those 10 square feet of beach.
"It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves." Jung -
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