Essay on Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill occurred in Prince William Sound in Alaska; the incident took place on the 24th of March 1989. Exxon Valdez an oil tanker hit a Prince William Sounds Blight Reef, the incident occurred at 12:04 am local time. The oil spill on the ocean was the biggest to occur in US waters, approximately 11 to 38 million US gallon of oil spilled into the ocean; other reports indicate that the total oil spillage was underestimated. The oil spillage occurred while the ship was bound for Lon Beach California. This is a literal example of Human-caused environmental disasters in the world. Efforts to access Prince William Sound remote location were strained, the island can be accessed only by boat or air, and efforts by interventionists were highly curbed by the high cost of emergency response that wasnt planned for by many disaster response teams. The region around Prince William Sound is a habitat for seals, seabirds, otters and the salmon. These creatures were killed in high numbers due to the oil spillage that covered approximately 11,000 square miles of the ocean and 1,300 miles of the coast line (Ott 248).

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The Exxon Valdez oil spillage shocked the world; this fault was placed on American shipping companies. The environmental watch groups like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were highly infuriated about the matter. Generally, citizens of different countries were infuriated by the matter as the oil spillage went on for five days, without any proper measures being taken to stop the spillage. Some groups like the Defenders of Wildlife disputed the results of the oil spillage report; this group claimed that the oil spillage was more than the data released. It is imperative to understand that such a case has environmental repercussions that can never be reversed. The death of the birds, sea creature and destruction of the oceanic plantae is an unforgivable act. The oil spillage caused a change in the oceanic ecosystem, the purity of water sand, and the sustainability of life in the ocean.

Cause of Spillage

There are multiple explanations of the cause of the oil spillage; this ranges from the irresponsibility of Exxon Shipping Company, the crew and the captain of the ship. The multiple factors that contributed to the Exxon Valdez spillage include:

Exxon Shipping Company had not looked into the monitoring of the shipping master, the crew available were few, and most of them were too tired. The company failed to provide sufficient crew to take the ship throughout the voyage. Coincidentally most of the shipping companies in the industry do not adhere to providing enough crew to their ships.

The third mate who was in control of the ship at the time of the incident. It can be attributed to fatigue during the long voyage. It is imperative to understand that he could be able to be conscious at the time if the shifts were well organized as it is expected.

Exxon Shipping Company failed to replace the Raytheon Collision Avoidance System radar. They thought it was too expensive to purchase while it never served a major purpose. If the ship had a functional radar system, they would have been made aware of the impeding collision within a time limit that would have helped them avert the impeding situation. The reef also has a radar reflector that would have been identified by RAYCAS radar system.

There are many other reasons as to why the incident occur, the captain of the ship; Captain Joseph Hazelwood was totally drunk that night. In his drunkard reveries, he was unable to be in control of the ship as it is his responsibility as the commanding officer of the ship. It is imperative to note that even the captain never care about the broken state of the RAYCAS radar system, had it been online the third mate would have been made aware of the impeding accident. It is clear to note that; at the time the Shipping industry was a sleeping lion, for a long time the oil industry has announced to install state of the art iceberg monitoring system but to no avail. Another important thing to note is that the ship was sailing outside the normal sea level, this was in a bid to avoid collisions with small icebergs. The lack of experts in the decks of the ship and the unavailability of proper equipment to stop the oil spillage in the ocean.

The Exxon Valdez disaster can be described as human error, an enterprise error, and a policy error. Human error from the perspective that Captain Hazelwood was totally drunk during the night, he was not there to guide the third mate considering that they were sailing off-course. Had that captain been there, there could have been a possible aversion of the situation based on his experience in deep waters. An enterprise error is on where Exxon Shipping Company did not bother to replace they RAYCAS rare system; the shipping company left it broken never seeing the need for the equipment until it was rather too late. This agenda was economically instigated as the company considered it too expensive to repair or purchase a newer RAYCAS system radar. Taking the industrial outlook, the shipping industry has for a long time not been equipping ships with enough crew and this has been a continuous practice in the industry ("Oil In The Environment: Legacies And Lessons Of The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill" 51-55).

The issue surrounding the Exxon Valdez oil spill is that of malpractice and taking shortcuts. The problem with humanity and in turn conglomerates in the shipping industry is the aspect of avoiding small rectifications that in the long run turns out to be a major catastrophe. Taking a look at what Exxon Shipping Company did not address, a malfunctioned radar collision avoidance system whose acquisition price is a meagre amount compared to the $5 billion the company paid in suits. Taking shortcuts in life usually results in bad endings, Exxons action of ignoring the installation of the collision avoidance system was a major fault that costed them a huge chunk of their profits. Looking at Captain Hazelwood, the captain was totally drunk at the night of the incident, lifestyle issues come in here. Alcohol consumption, in general, leads to impairment in judgment, decision making and the ability to be there when one is required. In the case the Captain was on the deck on that night, he would have aided in avoiding the occurrence of the incident. Had the Captain considered the possibility of a collision considering that he was aware that the ship was off course and the possibility of any incidents were high, this incident would not have occurred. It is unclear as to why the Captain did not alert the third mate about the Prince William Sound Reef just ahead on their course. His decision to get drunk and sleep is rather a careless move; he ought to be there at the decks during the whole course until they resumed the normal sea line. Human error in many cases costs the environment bigtime, the repercussions of their actions are usually irreversible however much intervention is put in place (Ott 248).

After the oil spillage took place interventionist from all parts of the world showed up to clean Exxons mess. A private company rolled out helicopters with dispersant buckets but there wasnt enough waves to mix the water, oil, and the dispersant, the project was stopped. In an effort to remove the oil from the ocean waters, dispersant Corexit 9850 was formulated, the dispersant was used though its toxicity was held in question by many. The toxicity of the chemical raised concerns among fishing groups, and conservationists, the dumping of chemicals into the ocean was widely disputed. When the use of boomers and skimmers, mechanical cleanup was initiated through the use of cold and war water. Most of the water mixed with oil was sucked by suction pipes; this impurity was taken up to purification plants. Though the public insisted that the oil be removed to totality, only 10% of the oil spill was actually cleaned. Restoration of the environment was taken up by over 11,000 Alaskan citizens and Exxons crew (Ott 248). Though the efforts to clean up the shoreline on Prince Willian Sound Reef, the use of hot water killed many microbial organisms such as planktons, this contributed to increased biodegradation.

The effects of the oil spillage were both short-term and long-term. On the short-term, immediate effects were the death of over 100,000 to 250,000 sea birds, a total of 2,800 otters, 300 seals, 247 eagles and an unknown count of Salmons and herrings. A group of researcher visited the location fifteen years later to find some bits of the oil in the shores; these oil spurts lasted longer than anticipated. The presence of polycyclic hydrocarbon has contributed to the increased rate of mortality of the sea creatures ("Oil In The Environment: Legacies And Lessons Of The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill" 51-55).

The habits of human beings are here to stay; people dont change, but I believe the implementation of policies to curb any form of carelessness is the way to handle people. The future is to develop standard mechanisms of operation, regular inspection of tankers, and automation of management systems in the Oil and Gas and Shipping industries. The integration of technology into finding alternative sources of energy is the way to go. Use of renewable energy sources like wind power, solar energy and other options of energy are the future mechanism of power creation. The use of oil should be a thing of the past; the technique has been in operation for over a century, and it is high time that the world seeks other energy options that are much more environmentally friendly. The effects of the Exxon Oil spillage cannot be reversed or reduced, it is, therefore, imperative to understand that poor management of Oil or Liquefied Natural Gas could lead to environmental disasters. It is important that the government, environmental protection programs, and other private companies derive ways of apprehending any carelessness in any industry.

Work Cited

"Oil In The Environment: Legacies And Lessons Of The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill". Choice Reviews Online 51.10 (2014): 51-5584-51-5584. Web.

Ott, Riki. "The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill And Its Impact On Community And Ecology". Epidemiology 20 (2009): S248. Web.