Analysis Of The Exxon Valdez Disaster Essay Example

Perhaps the most prominent maritime disaster detrimental to Arctic protection and sustainability is oil spills. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound, located in the southern Gulf of Alaska in subarctic territory. The oil tanker struck the Bligh Reef and spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil. The oil spill was the second largest in U.S. history and the worst spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment. The spill polluted 1300 miles of shoreline along the sound; in addition, the spill extended over 300 miles south to the Shelikof Strait, which divides Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula. Exxon Mobil allocated 2 billion USD to cleanup efforts and 1 billion USD to settle civil and criminal charges. However, the U.S. court case Exxon v. Baker (2008) had Exxon Mobil settle 287 million USD for actual damages and 5 billion USD for punitive damages. After appealing to the Supreme Court, Exxon Mobil had its punitive damages slashed to 507.5 million USD per an 1818 precedent. For context, Exxon Mobil grossed 40.6 billion USD in 2007, relegating the settlement as merely pocket change for the company. Unsurprisingly, this case is usually cited as one of the worst decisions in recent Supreme Court history. Moreover, this case displays the pernicious trend of corporate favoritism present in certain Arctic countries, especially the U.S. and Russia., which absolves the accountability needed to prevent further damage to the Arctic.

The environmental damage due to Exxon Valdez was unprecedented. According to the NOAA, the oil killed about 250,000 seabirds, 2800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 22 killer whales, and billions of salmon and herring eggs. Due to the remote location of Prince William Sound, the area was only accessible by helicopter and boat, straining the rescue and cleanup effort. Nonetheless, a coalition of the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. National Response Team, EPA specialists, NOAA specialists, and marine experts collaborated to contain the spill by burning, mechanical cleanup, and chemical dispersant methods. In response to the disaster, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which strengthened the EPA’s purview when handling catastrophic oil spills and proved mostly successful.

Unfortunately, nearby indigenous communities were severely impacted by the spill socially, culturally and economically. Dune Lankard, founder and director of the Eyak Preservation Council, perfectly encapsulates the unjust treatment towards indigenous communities following the spill: 

We only received 286 million USD in compensatory damages for 30,000 plaintiffs. The federal courts have said that our subsistence way of life could not be factored on an economic basis; therefore, only a percentage of the punitive damage settlement will go to commercial fishermen. … The courts have ruled that there is no economic basis for our subsistence lifestyle, so we do not need to be compensated for the damage caused by the oil spill. How can that be? How can anyone not factor in the impacted twenty-five species that we have subsisted on for thousands of generations and say that there is no economic basis to our existence? The ocean is our grocery store.

In addition to the paltry compensation, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, entrusted with habitat restoration, assisted the federal government in buying the native land belonging to indigenous communities along the 1500 miles of coastline. In order to receive the Council’s assistance, the indigenous communities were constrained to sell one-half of their land to the government. Social and cultural impacts also exacerbated the indigenous situation following the spill. According to an academic article published by Sage in 2000, commercial fishing activities were immediately suspended and subsistence harvest drastically declined in the years following the spill. In consequence, chronic social disruption, psychological stress, and severe depression plagued natives affected by the spill.