The Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Essay by xolyssxoJunior High, 8th gradeA+, January 2006

download word file, 3 pages 3.3

Oil spills can be horrible. They pollute the ocean and land, killing many animals. A few years a go a ship called the Exxon Valdez had an oil spill. It has done a lot of damage to the environment and we are still cleaning up after it.

The Exxon Valdez oil spill happened for a number of reasons. Many safety precautions weren't being followed. The Captain was tired because of working too hard, and was possibly drunk. There wasn't a proper navigation watch or a big enough crew. The escort and pilot services weren't effective and there wasn't an effective vessel and traffic system. The spill actually happened when the ship came across icebergs. The ship left the channel to avoid them but never went back. The ship then hit a reef.

Approximately eleven million gallons of oil was spilled from the ship. This is like 125 Olympic pools filled to the top with oil dumped into the ocean.

The ship was carrying 53,094 gallons in total. This is considered the most damaging spill because it was very close to shore. 1300 miles were impacted by oil because of this spill. 200 miles were heavily and moderately covered in oil, and the rest was just light. 1300 miles is a distance of about as much land from New York to Miami.

Cleaning up an oil spill is hard work and takes a lot of time and people to do the job. It took more than four summers of cleaning before the job was called off. Some beaches are still oiled today. The job included over 10,000 workers, 1,000 boats, and 100 airplanes and helicopters. It cost about $2.1 billion to clean up. A hot water treatment was used until it was proven that it made everything worse. Now there are...