Though hopefully the flow of oil into the Gulf from the Deepwater Horizon spill will soon be capped for good, there is little we can do to stop the impact on the surrounding area and especially the fragile coastline.  Heartbreaking images of dying birds and fish have already raised a cry for help from wildlife as efforts to limit the damage begin.  What can be expected for the coming years of this sensitive area?  Perhaps examining the now second largest oil spill in US history, the Exxon Valdez, will provide a glimpse into the Gulf future.

Exxon Valdez grounded on Bligh Reef.  Photo: NOAA

How many gallons of oil spilled on the Valdez?

Just after midnight on March 24, 1989, the Exxon tanker that had departed form Valdez, Alaska shortly before, struck the unlit Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound.  It was not the first ship to hit the reef in this rich halibut and shrimp harvesting area. In 1910, a steamship Olympia ran aground here.  It sadly was not the last oil spill here, either.  Despite the addition of a navigation light, a tug named Pathfinder lost its path and ruptured its tanks on the reef on December 24, 2009. 

The Exxon Valdez spilled 250,000 barrels of crude oil in what became one the most devastating and highly publicized human-caused natural disasters.  Because of its remote location and a lack preparation and experience in dealing with an oil spill in an environmentally sensitive area, the response was largely improvised.  To answer TurnerHowell’s question, seventhseeker points out that 10.9 million gallons of the 54.1 million gallons of oil the tanker held were spilled into the Price William Sound.  This diverse habitat for orcas, sea and river otters, birds including the bald eagle, salmon and other fish as well as seals has suffered dramatic challenges.  11,000 Alaskans worked alongside Exxon employees to help boom, skim, burn, and clean the affected area. 

Exxon Valdez - boom around a salmon hatchery.  Photo: NOAA

The immediate effects were devastating, and have inspired changes in oil tanker standards and protection of the Arctic, which is still a prominent and vocal debate.  What was unknown, however, was how long the Valdez area would be affected.  At the ten-year mark in 1999, unforeseen long-term problems began surfacing.  The Exxon Valdez Oil Trustee Committee (EVOTC) published a report at the decade mark that highlighted lowered animal populations.   It also detailed some of the difficulty in fully understanding the scope of impacts due to the lack of preexisting data regarding the remote area.  Because of this, damage was often reported in the amount of found carcasses, though the uncounted remain a large projected amount, such as 14 killer whales from a resident pod that went missing during this time.  Natural variability among animal populations also limited accurate impact assessment, but could still be witnessed.  The EVOTC reported previous salmon populations of the years preceding the spill to be between 23.5 million in 1984 to 2.1 million in 1988.  In the years immediately after, the salmon numbers were between 17 million in 2005 to 1.3 million in 2002, a marked decrease.

NOAA chart of the fate of Exxon Valdez oil.  2% remians on beaches.

How is the wildlife still being affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

Greengenie answers this guest question by detailing the 250,000 birds and 3,000 sea otter carcasses that were recovered from the spill, though this number does not accurately reflect the extreme toll on the area.  Ten years after the spill in 1999, the beaches appeared clean but a 2001 NOAA study of 91 area sites found that more than 50% were still contaminated with Exxon Valdez oil to nearly the same degree as during the initial spill.  2003 studies indicated that 21,000 gallons of this oil still remained in the area and up to 450 miles away.  The oil is estimated to be diminishing at a rate of only 4% per year.   Clean-up and natural processes have only been able to clean oil out of only the top 3 inches of sediment. 

An oiled duck on the Valdez shore.  Photo: EVOTC

Part of the recovery of the surrounding ecosystem is contingent on what wildlife is exposed to.  Many animal populations are recovering their numbers.  Some, such as the sea otter, have rebounded in general, but in areas that were hard hit by oil, they have not recovered due to sea otters digging for clams into contaminated sediment.   One pod of local killer whales is struggling to regroup to pre-spill numbers, which will take an additional decade without further disruption.  Another pod, known as AT1, consists of whales unique to this area.  The pod hasn’t had a calf born since the spill and might soon die out. 

Ten of the 28 key species in this complex ecosystem that have been monitored were listed as ‘recovered’ in 2008.  One of the most important, Prince William Sound herring, have experienced fluctuations that could be attributed to several factors in addition to the spill.  This species is particularly important to the health of the ecosystem and is a focus of continued restoration efforts.  Human activities in the region, such as commercial fishing, recreation and tourism, are still listed as ‘recovering.’  The long-term effects on these services could have dramatically worse implications for the Gulf area, which relies quite heavily on these industries for its economic survival.  The Exxon Valdez spill served to demonstrate just how long a complex ecological system can be affected by a large oil spill.  Some estimates put the recovery time at close to a century.

The PRince William Sound on the road to recovery.  Photo: NOAA

The Captain of the Valdez, Joe Hazlewood, was targeted as the cause of the Exxon Valdez spill for drinking alcohol and making bad judgments.  Captain Hazelwood was found ‘not guilty’ of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol under a jury of twelve Alaskans.  The Alaska Oil Commission recognized that this was not a problem that could be blamed on an individual, but on a lack of preparedness and concern by political, commercial and even public interests.  Though many measures have been subsequently taken to protect affected areas, and to increase accident prevention and response in the oil industry, Exxon continually fought its dollar amount of responsibility.  The punitive damage amount was cut from $5 billion dollars to half that amount at $2.5 billion in 2007.  Despite combining with Mobil in 2000 to become the company in the world, Exxon continues to fight to reduce this dollar amount.  So far, Exxon has paid $3 billion in restoration and civil and criminal charges. The original $5 billion ruling inspired Exxon to open a line of credit with J.P. Morgan to cover the damages.  This was the creation of credit default swaps, a twist on loan risk that led to the US economic meltdown and global market blowout.  

How long did it take to clean up the Valdez oil spill?

There are many different characteristics to consider as we asses oil impact on an area.  There is the consideration of oil type, the composition, geography and population to the area as well as currents and storm and wave activity.  The Exxon Valdez spill study was the largest known impact to such a diverse and environmentally sensitive area, a characteristic the Gulf coast shares with it.  As members oharem and chris10 detail when answering doraSandifer’s question, the efforts to clean, restore and study the area are ongoing and will continue for decades to come. 

Oiled area, 1989                                                                                   The same area in 1998.  Photos: NOAA

Despite the collective human-driven attempt to clean the Exxon Valdez spill, the winter storms that occurred months later are thought to have done most of the work of clearing the immediate oil.  It remains a new concern what affect the approaching hurricane season will have on the Gulf spill.   Unlike the Prince William Sound, where none of the 1,000-plus miles of affected shoreline were accessible by road, the Gulf has many ships and hands ready to assist in the massive cleaning effort.   The scars of the Exxon Valdez spill are still apparent, in animals, under boulders and in the hearts of everyone involved.  This spill has also provided valuable data and experience on how oil damages an ecosystem.  This should prove to not only be helpful in facing the future of an oil-ridden Gulf, but in identifying impact of other non-point sources of oil in American waterways, such as the millions of gallons that are washed down sewers from everyday activities and car use.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill may be receiving the proper attention to finally stop the flow of oil into the Gulf, but estimates already show the amount of oil to be surpassing the Exxon Valdez spill exponentially.  The impacts are imminent and will ripple through the future, affecting our economy, politics, and our relationship to our natural resources.  Though this lesson is being called a ‘wake-up call’ in the media today, the truth is that the Exxon Valdez spill was a similar call that seems to have gone unheard.   What we have learned is that the clean-up will require a committed, long-term effort and may inspire new insight into the true cost of oil.

Source: Mission Without a Map; EVOTC 20th Anniversary Report