Four minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez hit Bligh Reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound. Eleven million gallons of North Slope oil spewed into one of the most bountiful marine ecosystems in the world, killing birds, marine mammals, and fish, and devastating the ecosystem in the oil's path. Exxon says that the Sound has recovered. They're wrong.

In the 1989 spill, crude oil spread across Alaska's coastal seas covering 10,000 square miles, an area the size of Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, and 25 Washington, D.C.s combined! Within a week, currents and winds pushed the slick 90 miles from the site of the tanker, out of Prince William Sound into the Gulf of Alaska. It eventually reached nearly 600 miles away from the wrech, contaminating 1,500 miles of shoreline -- about the length of California's coast.

Could it happen again?

Before the Exxon Valdez spill, conservationists warned about the potential impacts of a major spill. In fact, just hours before the disaster, a group of Valdez residents had gathered at the city council chambers to discuss the impact of oil on their community. When the conversation turned to response to a major spill, Riki Ott, a fisherwoman and toxicologist from Cordova said, "It's not a matter of what if, but when."

Today, conservationists are again sounding the alarm about several risky Alaskan oil development schemes and practices. First, the vast majority of oil shipped from Alaska is still carried in outdated, single-hull tankers. Second, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which carries oil from the North Slope to the port of Valdez, is aging, mismanaged, and in dire need of repair. In the last 20 years, dozens of leaks have gone undetected, and workers have been continually mistreated or intimidated from reporting the company's environmental abuses to regulators.

Third, British Petroleum's proposed Northstar project would require the construction of the first ever subsea pipeline in the Alaskan Arctic. Buried beneath the sea ice, leaks from the pipeline would be difficult to detect and impossible to clean up. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates there is a 23 to 27% chance of a major spill at Northstar.

Lastly, BP, ARCO, Chevron and Exxon are lobbying Congress for the right to erect hundreds of miles of pipelines, roads, drilling pads, and other industrial facilities in the biological heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge-its 1.5 million acre coastal plain. Known as "America's Serengeti" for its abundance of wildlife, the Arctic Refuge is critical denning habitat for polar bears, calving grounds for caribou, and home to wolves, musk oxen, and millions of migratory birds. The U.S. Interior Department warns development of the coastal plain could lead to major declines in wildlife populations and forever alter the fragile tundra landscape.

Effects of the Spill

Highest Toll of Birds and Mammals Ever

The Exxon Valdez disaster killed more wildlife than any other environmental disaster in our nation's history, including:

Marine Mammals More marine mammals and birds died than in any other oil spill, including an estimated 3,500 to 5,500 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, and 14 to 22 killer whales.

Birds "The Exxon Valdez spill killed nearly ten times as many birds as any other U.S. or European oil spill," said seabird expert Dr. Michael Fry. As many as half a million birds died, including bald eagles, harlequin ducks, marbled murrelets and loons.

Fish Critical spawning and rearing habitats, including over 100 salmon streams, were besieged in oil. In 1993 there was an unprecedented crash of the sound's Pacific herring population. The spill also caused a noticeable decline in pink and churn salmon, dolly varden cutthroat trout and rockfish.

Habitat Three national parks, three national wildlife refuges, one national forest and designated wilderness were oiled.

Toxic Effects Linger

To the naked eye, Prince William Sound may appear "normal." But if you look just beneath the surface, oil continues to contaminate beaches, national parks, and designated wilderness. In fact, the Office of Technology Assessment estimated that beach cleanup and oil skimming only recovered 3-4% of the Exxon Valdez spill.

A decade later, the ecosystem still suffers. Substantial contamination of mussel beds persists, contributing to the decline of harlequin ducks. The depressed population of Pacific herring -- a critical source of food for over 40 predators including seabirds, harbor seals and Stellar sea lions -- is having severe impacts up the food chain. Recent studies revealed that even on "cleaned-up" washed beaches, mollusks and other invertebrates were far less abundant than on comparable unspoiled beaches.

Wildlife population declines continue for harbor seals, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loons, pigeon guillemots, red-faced cormorants, and double-crested cormorants.

0il is More Toxic than Thought

Even before the spill, scientists knew a drop of oil could kill a bird's egg. But after studying the impact of the Valdez spill, they now believe oil pollution to be at least 100 times more toxic to fish. It is also more persistent New studies by the National Marine Fisheries Service show that even very low levels of weathered Exxon Valdez oil are toxic to the early life stages of salmon and herring. The Exxon Valdez spill resulted in profound physiological effects to fish and wildlife. These included reproductive failure, genetic damage, curved spines, lowered growth and body weights, altered feeding habits, reduced egg volume, liver damage, eye tumors, and debilitating brain lesions.

Sources

Alaska's Wildlife. Jan./Feb. 1993. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, What Have We Learned?

Alaska Oil Spill Commission. Feb. 1990. Spill: The Wreck of the Exxon Valdez.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. Nov. 1994. Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan.

Exxon Valdez Trustee Council. Jan. 1999. Update on Injured Resources.

Heintz, R.A., J.W Short, S.D. Rice. Sensitivity of Pink Salmon to Weathered Crude Oil. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 18(3).

National Wildlife Federation. 1990. The day the water died. Anchorage.

Contact

Alaska Wilderness League, (202) 544- 5205
Sierra Club Arctic Campaign, (961) 276- 4088
U.S. Public Interest Research Group, (202) 546-9107
National Audubon Society, Wildlife Refuge Campaign, (202) 861-2242

This page was adapted, with permission, from a publication produced by the
Alaska Wilderness League
320 4th Street, NE
Washington, D.C. 20002
awl@boo.net
Caribou photo by © Pamela A. Miller. All other photos by © Karen Jettmar

L.R. Beyon, British Petroleum
speaking for Alyeska in 1971