The Economic, Political and Environmental Ramifications of:
On Good Friday, March 24, 1989, Valdez, Alaska was thrust into the world spotlight as the tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef, spilling 10 million gallons of oil into the marine-life-rich waters of Prince William Sound (Gilson, 1989, p. 18).
The oil spill resulting when the Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef was the worst in American maritime history. As the story unfolded, the public learned that the captain of the ship had apparently been drinking, that the third mate was in charge of the vessel at the time it struck the reef, and that safeguards which should have prevented such an accident existed, but were not operating the night of the accident ("In Ten Years..." 1989, p. 51). This paper examines the spill and its economic, political and environmental consequences.
The economic effects of the spill began almost immediately. The ship was named for the town of Valdez; the town developed as a result of the oil boom of the 1970s. Oil has been a part of Valdez for twenty years, and the spill brought an unexpected economic boom to an otherwise economically depressed area:
The billion-dollar cleanup has revitalized the state's economy, depressed by low oil prices, and brought its unemployment rate down from 10.9 percent two years ago to 6.1 percent in July . . . The Valdez population of 3,500 has at times swelled to over 15,000. Entrepreneurs sell everything from sex to 3 souvenir vials of Prince William seawater (Stachell and Carpenter, 1989, p. 63).
Some fishermen hired their boats to Exxon to assist in the cleanup, at charges that reached as high as $5,000 per day (Satchell and Carpenter, 1989, p. 63). The state prohibited fishing in nearly one-third of Prince William Sound shortly following the accident. There was no evidence that fish in that area were tainted, but the government feared the backlash from consumers if fish picked up oil as they wer...