Alaskan Oil Spill Ashley Ragland

What Happened? March 23, 1989 at 9:15pm, the 986-foot Exxon Valdez, 2nd newest vessel out of the company’s 20-tanker fleet, left the Trans Alaska Pipeline terminal in Prince William Sound, Alaska William Murphy, an expert ship's pilot and Captain Joe Hazelwood had the responsibility to get 53,094,510 mill gallons (1,264,155 barrels) to Los Angeles, California The ship took a different route in attempt to avoid ice but failed March 24, 1989 at 12:04 a.m. the vessel hit the Bligh Reef spilling over 11million gallons of its 53 million gallon cargo of Prudhoe Bay crude oil Out of the 11 tanks, 8 were damaged and impacted approximately 1,300 miles of the Alaskan shoreline. 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools could be filled with amount of oil spilled

Weaknesses Public relations team did a poor job handling the after math Damaged their public image extensively by not immediately issuing a public statement and not owning up to the mistake Company was not responding fast enough Exxon’s top executives didn’t comment on accident for almost a week after the spill Public statements by the company sometimes contradicted information from other sources

Weaknesses cont. Exxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl, sent a series of lower ranking executives to the scene instead of dealing with it personally Gave the impression this problem was not important enough to have the attention of the top executives. Made the company look week and looked like they didn’t want to take control of the situation. Exxon news briefings were based only in Valdez Small town with limited communications resources Made spreading information through the media difficult. Failed to update its media relations people world wide

Interesting Quote/Fact ''All crises have a window of opportunity to gain control of 45 minutes to 12 hours,'’ -Paul Shrivastava director of the Industrial Crisis Institute

Attempt To Change The Image Exxon's chairman, Lawrence G. Rawl’s 1st statement was made six days after the accident Visited Alaska on April 14,three weeks after the event

Media Ran a world wide newspaper ad 10 days after the spill apologizing for the incident but not accepting responsibility Ad appeared to be a cliché did not address the questions about Exxon's conduct

Success Rawl pledged to clean everything up He visited news bureaus to explain what the company would do, He answered whatever questions were asked Turned the companies image around Within 24 In 1994 a jury awarded $287 million to compensate for economic losses $5 billion awarded punitive damages due to company's "reckless" behavior Exxon has only paid $15,000 in compensation per claimant Close to 8,000 people or 1/4 of the plaintiff have died waiting to be compensated Spent the last 14 years appealing the verdict, In 2006, a court cut the damages in half to $2.5 billion

Success cont The chosen public relations strategy made the ecological nightmare worse They hosed scorching hot water at high pressure on the shoreline Scientists thought this plan "poison to the beach and area's many animals" Since the disaster The company's public relations campaign revolves around "earth scientists" Exxon's staff to doesn't’t take responsibility for environmentalists' claims of ecological damage

Irreversible Damage In first year most of the visible damage was washed away but the environment is still feeling the effects Scientists noted higher death rates among sea otters Other species growth has been stunted along with other damage When species procreated, they carried mutations and disease with them Over 32 thousand people unable to make a living with commercial fishing Caused over $300 million of economic damage

Irreversible Damage cont  Decrease in Tourism spending 8% in south central Alaska 35% in southwest Alaska in the year after the spill. loss of 9,400 visitors and $5.5 million spent by the state Pink salmon eggs were still being effected by oil remains on stones of stream banks up until 1993 Southwestern part of Prince William Sound lost 1.9 million (28%) of its potential stock of wild pink salmon. Oil is still found on half of the 91 arbitrarily elected beaches surveyed 12 years later

Death Toll 250,000 -500,000 (90 species), seabirds died after the disaster 900 bald eagles 300 harbor seals 1,000 harlequin ducks 14 killer whales 2,800 sea otters Billions of salmon and herring eggs 4 human deaths associated with cleanup

References Cleveland, C. J. (2010, June 9). Exxon Valdez oil spill. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.eoearth.org/article/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill?topic=58075 Details About the Accident. (1990, February). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/details.cfm Exxon Valdez. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://www.epa.gov/osweroe1/content/learning/exxon.htm Holusha, J. (1989, April 21). Exxon's Public-Relations Problem. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://crisiscommunications.ning.com/notes/Exxon_Valdez Smith, S. (2008, March 14). The Exxon Valdez Disaster Goes On. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://socialistworker.org/2008/03/14/exxon- valdez West, L. (n.d.). Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Retrieved April 8, 2013, from http://environment.about.com/od/environmentalevents/p/exxon_valdez.ht m