The EXXON Valdez Oil Spill a Report to the President

Shortly after midnight on March 24, 1989, the987-foot tank vessel Exxon Valdez struck BlighReef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Whatfollowed was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.The oil slick has spread over 3,000 square miles andonto over 350 miles of beaches in Prince WilliamSound, one of the most pristine and magnificentnatural areas in the country. Experts still areassessing the environmental and economicimplications of the incident. The job of cleaningup the spill is under way, and although the initialresponse proceeded slowly, major steps have beentaken.The very large spill size, the remote location,and the character of the oil all tested spillpreparedness and response capabilities. Governmentand industry plans, individually and collectively,proved to be wholly insufficient to control an oilspill of the magnitude of the Exxon Valdezincident. Initial industry efforts to get equipmenton scene were unreasonably slow, and oncedeployed the equipment could not cope with thespill. Moreover, the various contingency plans didnot refer to each other or establish a workableresponse command hierarchy. This resulted inconfusion and delayed the cleanup.Prepared by the National Response Team, thisreport was requested by the President andundertaken by Secretary of Transportation SamuelK. Skinner and Environmental Protection AgencyAdministrator William K. Reilly. The reportaddresses the preparedness for, the response to, andearly lessons learned from the Exxon Valdezincident. The President has also asked SecretarySkinner to coordinate the efforts of all federalagencies involved in the cleanup and AdministratorReilly to coordinate the long-term recovery of theaffected areas of the Alaskan environment. Theseefforts are ongoing.The reportaddresses a number of important environmental,energy, economic, and health implications of theincident.