Posted on 03/24/2009 3:27:38 PM PDT by JoeProBono
At midnight on March 24,1989, after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound, more than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into the waters. It was the beginning of America's worst environmental nightmare.
More than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound 20 years ago when the Exxon Valdex oil tanker struck a reef More than 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound 20 years ago when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker struck a reef
Fish and wildlife perished and fishermen saw their livelihood vanish. The spill eventually covered more than 4,000 square kilometers. Although Exxon says it spent almost $2 billion in clean up and millions in compensation, the oil company is still battling court-ordered damage payments.
(Excerpt) Read more at voanews.com ...
I already know how to post an article on FR, Mr. Eric Holder.
Yeah, I didn’t think the spill was that big a deal either.
There’s nothing wrong with saying that the oil spill was a huge catastrophe for that area. Sometimes really bad things happen. This was a bad thing. I was there and I saw it first hand. It’s hard to describe how enormous the problem was.
Sure, there are natural oil springs all over and all the time. But you also have to consider concentration in one place as well. One guy peeing in a lake doesn’t pollute it, but a whole city doing it will. It’s all about concentration and scale.
That said, I also think that much of the cleanup effort did more harm than good. Turns out that critters that live on the beaches, while they don’t like thick gooey crude very much, they like being steam-cleaned even less. In my opinion, the cleanup effort was meaningless and a waste of time and resources. And it left mostly sterile beaches.
There is phenomenal natural recovery happening. Crude oil is a natural, organic substance. Nature will eventually take care of it. It won’t be back to “normal” for a long time yet. But it will recover. Many of the badly oiled beaches now look much as they did before the spill, though you can overturn rocks and still find pockets of sticky crude.
It was a bad deal, and it would have been better if it didn’t happen. But it did, and it was probably inevitable. Some better oil-containment preparations would’ve helped, but wouldn’t have totally got it all. A double-hull wouldn’t have prevented it. Fact is, a human being (the 3rd mate) made a very ordinary human mistake, and that sort of thing is always going to happen. Sometimes they’re going to make mistakes that really suck. It’s part of the price of civilization.
IMHO. :-)
You misread my position.
Zulima Palacio is in big trouble, there’s not one slight against Palin.
What is it?
#24?
Hey Joe you disappoint on this one...I was in Alaska in 1991. Cruise with 7 ports of call including Valdez. No oil in the harbors outside of what one would expect in any harbor that has boats...Was there again 2 years ago...The place is great....
“Oil Remains: The Persistence, Toxicity, and Impact of Exxon Valdez Oil
Visitors today experience the spectacular scenery and wildlife of Prince William Sound and the North Gulf of Alaska. However, one of the most stunning revelations of Trustee Council-funded monitoring over the last ten years is that Exxon Valdez oil persists in the environment and in places, is nearly as toxic as it was the first few weeks after the spill.”
Palin’s Fault!
A State and Federal Partnership
The Trustee Council was formed to oversee restoration of the injured ecosystem through the use of the $900 million civil settlement. The Council consists of three state and three federal trustees (or their designees). The Council is advised by members of the public and by members of the scientific community.
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