Posted on March 25, 2019 by Al Bergstein
Some facts on the ground. While the press may have moved on, the oil hasn’t. Why we are so adamant about new oil spill regulations in Olympia as Canada gears up to put hundreds of more oil freighters into our joint use Strait. Whatever could go wrong?
Before dawn on March 24, 1989, Dan Lawn stepped off of a small boat and onto the boarding ladder dangling from the side of the grounded Exxon Valdez oil tanker. As he made the crossover, he peered down into the water of Prince William Sound, and saw, in the glare of the lights, an ugly spectacle he would never forget. “There was a 3-foot wave of oil boiling out from under the ship, recalls Lawn, who was then a Valdez-based Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation employee helping to watchdog the oil industry. “You couldn’t do anything to stop it.”… Eventually, the oil would foul parts of 1,300 miles of coastline, killing marine life ranging from microscopic planktons to orcas in an accident that would change how the maritime oil-transportation industry does business in Alaska, and to a lesser extent, elsewhere in the world. Hal Bernton and Lynda Makes report. (Seattle Times) See also: Wounded Wilderness: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill 30 Years Later On the surface, Prince William Sound appears to have recovered. But you don’t have to dig too deep—into the soil or into memories—to find the spill’s lingering effects. Tim Lydon reports. (Hakai Magazine)
It’s been 30 years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Here’s what we’re still learning from that environmental debacle.
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Filed under: Oil Spills, Puget Sound | Tagged: alaska, exxon valdez, Oil Spills, Puget Sound | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 21, 2014 by Al Bergstein
25 years later, and the pain and destruction just keeps on keepin on. This is why we are so hard core about protecting us from an oil spill. I want to point out that we should be very proud of the Coast Guard here in the Sound that have done an excellent job of vessel traffic control, and our politicians like Representative Kevin Van De Wege who helped push through the rescue tug at Neah Bay (with the help of the Tribes, many governmental and NGOs too over 15 years of work). There are new threats coming, and the need to be ever vigilant is never going to leave. But we have done a great job up to now. Knock on wood.
Before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, there was the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, at the time the nation’s largest oil spill.
The 987-foot tanker, carrying 53 million gallons of crude, struck Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989. Within hours, it unleashed an estimated 10.8 million gallons of thick, toxic crude oil into the water. Storms and currents then smeared it over 1,300 miles of shoreline.
Read the whole story at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/25-years-exxon-valdez-spill-effects-linger-22981757
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Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: exxon valdez, oil spill, Puget Sound | 1 Comment »
Posted on March 21, 2014 by Al Bergstein
From my good friend Mike Sato:
I learned about the Exxon Valdez going aground 25 years ago while working in corporate communications for the investor-owned utility, Hawaiian Electric Company. We sadly watched the national news for days as 11 million gallons of oil spread and coated the pristine shorelines.
Read the rest of the story at:
http://salishseacommunications.blogspot.com/2014/03/oil-and-water-dont-mix-never-have.html
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Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: exxon valdez, oil pollution, Puget Sound | Comments Off on Oil And Water Don’t Mix— Never Have – Salish Sea Communications
