The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

These included Hazelwood's failure to provide proper navigation instructions for the EV, Cousins' failure to steer the ship safely, Exxon's failure to supervise Hazelwood and provide sufficient crew for the EV, the US Coast Guard's failure to provide an effective vessel traffic system and the lack of effective pilot and escort services.

Bligh Island and Bligh Reef had been known to navigators since 1930. There was a well-established sea lane that took ships to the west of the Bligh Reef, but Hazelwood took the vessel east of the shipping lanes to avoid the growlers. After being outside the sea lane, the EV's course was directed toward Bligh Reef. However, it would not have been too difficult to avoid the collision with Bligh Reef...

Such a huge amount of oil had never been spilled over the northern coastal region and biologists were unsure of the implications and how to respond. The location of the spill was remote and it was accessible only by helicopter and boat. Since the spill site was located two hours by boat from the port of Valdez every task was time consuming and equipment had to be delivered by boat or by air. The most important task was to prevent further oil spill as the EV was in an unstable position; the next move was to clean the spill up as quickly as possible. The Alyseka Pipeline Service Company (Alyseka) was chosen to shoulder the responsibility of cleaning up the spill. Soon, Alyseka opened an emergency communications center in Valdez and an operations center in Anchorage, Alaska...