The Exxon Disaster

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the effects of the Exxon Mobile disaster off the coasts of Alaska in March, 1989, when 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled into a section of the Alaskan shipping lanes. The author describes the damage that was caused by the spill and offers some suggestions to prevent such a disaster occurring again.

From the Paper:

"In March, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil spilled into the Prince William sound- a section of Alaskan shipping lanes. The Valdez was bound to a California port carrying 53 million gallons of crude oil when her crew, at various stages and faults of negligence, steered the ship into the Bligh Reef. The Exxon Valdez oil spill continues to be among the worst environment disasters in human history.
"When first deciding to research this topic I was under the impression that the disaster was the worst oil spill ever. Upon further research I was shocked to learn of much more severe spills, including the dumping of up to 460 million gallons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf during operation: Desert Storm. 140 million gallons of crude were spilled when an explorer well blew out in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979. Although this Mexico spill was huge, the environmental impact was significantly less than the Valdez disaster. There are several reasons for the severity of the Valdez incident which I will discuss later in the paper."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Exxon demands court reduce $5 billion Valdez award David Kravets The Seattle Times: Friday, January 27, 2006
• Trouble on Oiled Waters: Lessons from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Paine, R. T.; Ruesink, Jennifer L.; Sun, Adrian; Soulanille, Elaine L.; Wonham, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 1996 Annual Reviews Call No. 27:197-235
• Novel Scientific Evidence of Intoxication: Acoustic Analysis of Voice Recordings from the Exxon Valdez J. Alexander Tanford; David B. Pisoni; Keith Johnson The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), Vol. 82, No. 3. (Autumn, 1991), pp. 579-609 Call No. 0091-4169/91/8203-0579
• America's great disasters Sandler, Martin New York: HarperCollins, 2003 Call No. 973 S318
• The Economics of a Disaster Bruce M. Owen, David A Argue, Et All. Quorum Books, Westport CT 1995 Call No. HC107.A43W324

More papers on The Exxon Disaster:

• Essay # 44423 : "The Exxon Valdez Disaster"
• Analytical Essay # 117627 : "The Exxon Valdez Disaster"
• Essay # 75311 : "The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: