First celebrated in 1970, Earth Day is now observed annually on April 22nd. Every day should be Earth Day, but when there’s a specific date to focus on, we’re probably more likely to think carefully about the environment and how we’re continuing to pollute it. In fact, this year is the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, which occurred in the early morning hours of Friday, March 24, 1989.
Although the last thing I should have done on Earth Day was any additional driving, tonight I showed up at the East Brookfield Library to hear Scott Connor, owner and chef at E. B. Flatts Restaurant on Route 9, talk about the role he played in this long-running environmental disaster.
In 1989, Mr. Connor was a young medic with the U.S. Coast Guard, attached to the Marine Safety Division, on a tour of duty in Alaska. On that fateful March day, he was on his way back to Anchorage when he was ordered to return to Valdez to help in the ensuing crisis. In fact, he happened to be the only person available to meet with the Captain and others of the tanker’s crew in order to draw blood for alcohol and drug testing. In the weeks that followed, he saw first hand what 10.8 million gallons of crude oil looked like as it spread over the water and blackened the pristine shoreline of Southwestern Alaska. He also described the initial confusion and lack of co-ordination that hampered the desperate efforts of professionals and volunteers to mitigate the effects of the spill on the marine environment, particularly on the animals such as salmon, sea otters, and birds.
Mr. Connor defended the ship’s captain, Joseph Hazelwood, as a skilled mariner who accepted responsibility for the mishap, because “a captain goes down with his ship.” In fact, in the jury trial which resulted from the accident, Hazelwood, who was not piloting the ship when it ran aground, was convicted of misdemeanor negligence; the National Transportation Safety Board also cited a number of factors as probable causes contributing to the grounding of the Exxon Valdez on Bligh Reef. All told, Exxon Mobil contributed an estimated $2 billion to the cleanup effort and spent an additional $1 billion to settle legal claims, but in the end, punitive damages were not assessed against the company.
Though the Exxon Valdez disaster is not even close to being the largest oil spill recorded in terms of volume, it did have far-reaching consequences, including the Oil Pollution Act passed by Congress in 1990, which among other provisions barred the ship from ever entering Prince William Sound again. After extensive repairs, the Exxon Valdez was renamed the S/R Mediterranean and is still transporting oil today.
For more information on the subject, the East Brookfield Library recommends these sites: