The Exxon Valdez oil spill is the largest oil spill to have occurred in the United States and is widely considered the most environmentally destructive, due to the remote and pristine condition of the damaged area.
The oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a charted rock, Bligh Reef, in Prince William Sound on Good Friday, March 24, 1989. The ship ran aground after leaving the designated tanker lanes because of earlier reports of icebergs in the area.
Eleven million gallons (257,000 barrels) of Alaska North Slope crude oil spilled into the resource-laden environment, less than 30 miles from Valdez.
Oil giant ExxonMobil Wednesday urged the US Supreme Court to cancel a 2.5-billion-dollar compensation award for the huge 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, blaming the ship's captain for the disaster.
The US justices appeared to be divided on the case which has dragged through the courts for the past two decades.
Among the issues to be weighed by the court is whether Exxon can be punished under maritime law for the actions of the ship's captain, Joseph Hazelwood, who against company rules, had left the deck while on duty.
Prosecutors also maintained that Hazelwood was drunk when the ship ran aground on March 24, 1989, although he has denied the charge and was acquitted in criminal court.
Walter Dellinger, an attorney for the oil giant, argued before the justices that ExxonMobil should not be expected to pay billions of dollars in penalties "simply because against its policy rules Mr. Hazelwood left the deck."
But Jeffrey Fisher, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, maintained that the company was responsible for the actions of its employees.
"They can hire fit and competent people," Fisher argued.
Fisher said Hazelwood was an alcoholic who had been drinking on board the tanker, something which Exxon knew about even though it violated their rules. -http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=1,1,22&type=top&File=080227213236.wxaxwkxr.xml
Drinking.................
this is not about the Exxon valdez it’s about an incident that happened while a third mate was navigating the Empress Of The North near the town of Juneau Alaska.
The Third Mate of a vessel is the most junior officer who’s experience can range from just having graduated from a four year maritime academy to a senior officer who takes the lower position to gain experience on a new or interesting ship. For this reason the captain will often put the Third Mate on the 8pm-12am navigational watch so that he is awake in the event of trouble. They are also put on this watch because it is the least prone to the effects of sleep depravation.
During a press confrence for meda covering the Empress Of The North incident, a spokesman for the NTSB in separate statements said:
“The third mate, who was navigating, and the helmsman, who was steering, were the only people on the bridge at the time of the accident.
It’s our understanding that they realized that they were not going to be able to successfully navigate that 90 degree turn so they attempted to make a correction and weren’t able to make a correction successfully. So that’s when they struck Rocky Island,” Seattle Times
Compare this to the NTSB report of the Exxon Valdex:
“The third mate’s failure to turn the vessel at the proper time and with sufficientrudder probably was the result of his excessive workload and fatigued condition,which caused him to lose awareness of the location of Bligh Reef.” -gcaptain.com
Look..
So much oil...
The estimated initial death toll of the spill included 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales, billions of salmon and herring eggs, and other intertidal plants and animals. Some injured species are still recovering.
Cleaning up that big big mess...
Oil...... big mess....
Alaska. Prince William Sound. A sea otter (Enhydra lutris) female and pup carcass dead from effects of the tragic Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Pooled oil from the Exxon Valdez sits between rocks on the shore. Most of the spilled oil decomposed. Cleanup crews recovered about 14 percent; 13 percent sank to the sea floor; about two percent remained on the beaches, but today, very little remains.
Today...
today........ 19 years later.................
so many years later... still remains...
Killing dear sea friends...
bad....
And if that weren’t enough:
ExxonMobil has still not paid the punitive damages it owes for the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill! So far, 6,000 fisherman and others harmed by the devastating spill have died awaiting compensation.At every turn, ExxonMobil has acted consistently to move our country backward on energy and global warming policy. It's now up to the American public to expose ExxonMobil and pressure it to end its disinformation campaign on global warming.
Global warming.... not just America... Global... we here can feel it too already.
Believe me, trust me. You have the power to save the earth!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Trust me, it works.
Not just oil spill... many other things too that increases global warming.
Open burning etc etc...
Save electricity. Car pool. Use public transport. Cycle. Walk.
Plant a tree. Let people be aware...... etc etc
You know, the whole world should know about global warming..
But there are just so many people who doesn't care.
And just because of that, glbal warming increases.
Don't think you can't make a difference.
You can, really can.
Don't forget to tell your friends too.
I finally got this time to post about the environment....
And I will post more too.
I was supposed to post about earth day 07-07-2007
but I wasn't very free after halfway doing some research..
So today, I posted this post, and hoping that it makes a difference.
And you are the one, who will make the difference =]
Thankyou so much for reading =]
I really appreciate it!
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