A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On March 24, 1989, the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and began leaking an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil.
According to news accounts in the Deseret News, the 987-foot tanker Exxon Valdez, on its way to California, sliced into a portion of Bligh Reef and spilled about one-fifth of its 53 million-gallon cargo of oil into the pristine sound. Cleanup crews immediately began working to contain the spill, but it proved difficult.
Delayed efforts to contain the spill and naturally strong winds and waves dispersed nearly 11 million gallons of North Slope crude oil across the sound. Estimates say the spill eventually polluted 1,300 miles of shoreline, as well as adjacent waters, as far south as the southern end of Shelikof Strait between Kodiak Island and the Alaska Peninsula.
It cost billions in cleanup efforts. Despite those efforts, the spill exterminated much native wildlife, including salmon, herring, sea otters, bald eagles and killer whales.
The images were and are stark and heartbreaking, even today.
The Valdez oil spill is one of the largest in world history, eclipsed by the BP oil well rupture over 210 million gallons, and the 140 million-gallon Ixtoc I spill off Mexico’s coast from 1979 to 1980.
Of note, 32 years later, on March 23, 2021, a cargo ship the size of a skyscraper ran aground and became wedged in the Suez Canal; hundreds of ships would be prevented from passing through the canal until the vessel was freed six days later.
Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about the massive spill:
“Exxon admits cleanup is in trouble”
“Line of violent storms halts oil-spill cleanup”
“Valdez spill must be viewed in perspective”
“Fish, birds starting to rebound from ‘89 Valdez oil spill”
“Exxon found liable for Valdez spill”
“Crippled Exxon tanker heads for San Diego”
“Exxon celebrating — but Alaska isn’t”
“U.S., Alaska reach new accord with Exxon”
“‘79 Gulf oil spill leaves sobering lessons for BP”
“BP spill hits a somber record as Gulf’s biggest”
