Oil And Gas, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

"In 1989 the American oil tanker Exxon Valdez clashed with the Bligh Reef, causing a major oil leakage...This caused an oil spill of between 41.000 and 132.000 square meters, polluting 1900 km of coastline. The oil spill killed approximately 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 sea otters, 250 bald eagles and possibly 22 killer whales. Exxon Mobil, the owner of the Exxon Valdez, has paid approximately 3.5 billion dollars in connection with the accident, of which 2.1 billion was meant for the cleanup operation. Both Exxon and the government have ordered investigations of the disaster, because of the large sums of money involved. Ironically, official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration investigations have shown that most of the damage from the oil spill was caused by the cleaning operation following the disaster. It is clamed that pressure-washing was responsible for killing most of the marine life."