Tag Archives: Exxon Valdez
30 years after oil spill, he will never forget or forgive
Bob Day is 75 now. A fisherman for much of his life, he grew up on Alaska’s Prince William Sound. He will never, ever forget or forgive the desecration of that place he loves — or what he described as “a horror movie in your mind.” It’s been 30 years since the Exxon Valdez oil tanker slammed Bligh Reef just after midnight March 24, 1989. With its hull torn open, it spilled 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound. >click to read<18:18
Photos: Remembering the Exxon Valdez oil spill 30 years later
It was just after midnight on March 24, 1989, when an Exxon Shipping Co. tanker ran aground outside the town of Valdez, Alaska, spewing millions of gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the pristine Prince William Sound. The world watched the aftermath unfold: scores of herring, sea otters and birds soaked in oil, and hundreds of miles of shoreline polluted. Commercial fishermen in the area saw their careers hit bottom. It’s been 30 years since the disaster, at the time the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Only the 2010 Deep Water Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has eclipsed it. >click to read<16:16
Oil spill spared fish
Almost 30 years after the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef and smeared Prince William Sound with more than 11 million gallons of Alaska crude oil, a team of state and federal scientists have concluded the spill – as bad as it looked and as much impact as it had on marine mammals and birds – appears to have done no real damage to fisheries. “We found no evidence supporting a negative EVOS (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill) impact on herring, sockeye salmon, or pink salmon productivity, and weak evidence of a slightly positive EVOS signal on Copper River Chinook (king) salmon productivity,” the study says. “It is unclear how EVOS may have impacted Chinook salmon positively.” Somewhat surprisingly, however, the study found two non-oil spill events – one natural and one manmade – that appear to have caused significant changes in Sound fisheries. And one of them, a naturally occurring spill of fresh water, appears to be what crippled herring stocks there. click here to read the story link to the study 20:16
U.S. District Court Judge Russel Holland speaks out on Exxon Valdez saga
U.S. District Court Judge Russel Holland, who presided over the monumental Exxon Valdez oil spill court cases, removed his black robes to joke and offer personal thoughts on the stories surrounding his on the disaster Thursday in an Anchorage federal courtroom. Speaking to dozens of lawyers and judges in an informal gathering of the federal bar, Holland said the oil spill could have been avoided if Exxon had acknowledged the captain of the tanker fell off the wagon. Read the rest here 10:10
Resolution in support of Exxon Valdez “Reopener for Unknown Injury”
On Friday, the council’s board of directors unanimously passed a resolution in support of the “Reopener for Unknown Injury” from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Multiple citizens called in during the public comment period to voice their opinions about this important issue. Resolution 15-07 – “Supporting Habitat Restoration Pursuant to Damages Caused by the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill – in support of a meeting between the United States, the State of Alaska, Exxon, Inc., and the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Council. Read the rest here 08:59
Virginian-Pilot Editorial: Real risks to Virginia coast
The April 2010 blowout at BP’s Macondo well gushed for 87 days, a total of 4.9 million barrels of oil, coating beaches from Louisiana to Florida. About 40 percent of the Gulf was closed to fishing. Petroleum industry advocates desperately hope people will forget such things. Virginia leaders, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe and his predecessors – including Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine – have been pushing hard to open territory off Virginia Beach to drilling for oil and gas. Read more here 12:55
Exxon Valdez plaintiffs’ lawyer: 25 years after disaster, justice definitely not served
On the anniversary of the disaster, we checked in with Bob Stoll to ascertain what, if anything, has changed since the Exxon Valdez began leaking. Stoll’s Portland-based StollBerne law firm was enlisted by a class of plaintiffs to recover some $2.5 billion in damages on behalf of Alaskans. What do you remember about that day (or that period)? It was about two weeks before we realized the enormity of the catastrophe,, Read more here 18:01
25 years later, Exxon Valdez spill effects linger
For a generation of people around the world, the spill was seared into their memories by images of fouled coastline in Prince William Sound, of sea otters, herring and birds soaked in oil, of workers painstakingly washing crude off the rugged beaches. Bernie Culbertson was preparing to fish cod when the Exxon Valdez ran aground. With oil in the water, fishing came to a standstill and life for he and other fishermen drastically changed. Read more here 10:10
