Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

At 12:04 am on March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef off Prince William Sound, Alaska resulting in one of the largest oil spills in United States history. Approximately 11 million gallons of crude oil were spilled covering an area of 460 miles from Bligh Reef to the village of Chignik, impacting 1,300 miles of Alaskan coastline and killing countless animals (with estimates as high as 250,000 seabirds alone) and billions of salmon and herring eggs.

In addition to the environmental damage, the oil spill permanently changed the lives of those who live in Alaska; especially those living and working in the spill region for whom the water was a both an economical and cultural resource. Lawsuits between the State of Alaska, the United States government and Exxon and Alyeska Corporations and other defendants lasted five years. All state and federal cases were eventually combined as a federal case presided over by Judge J. Russell Holland and a state case presided over by Judge Brian Shortell with a final litigation settlement with the State of Alaska in 1993.