30th Anniversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Alaska

It was March 24, 1989 the one of the world’s worst human caused environmental disaster happened. (It is second to the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.)

It happened in Alaska’s pristine Prince William Sound about 11 MILLION gallons of crude oil spilled over a few days.

To make matters worse according to Wikipedia, Prince William Sound is a fairly remote location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat.  SO that made getting in there to deal with the mess a new problem. Overall 1,300 miles of coastline, about 200 miles were heavily or moderately hit, had been affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The cause of the spill? The reports are the captain had been drinking.

The impact the animals with thousands dying and environment impact still lingers to this day.

Some ‘interesting’ facts of the spill according to Livescience.com and The Seattle Times some of the area was NOT cleaned up so clean up measures can be evaluated and pockets of oil can still be found.

Want to know more?  Check out this documentary for more and images that will break your heart.