Exxon Valdez: How a Massive Oil Spill Triggered an Environmental Catastrophe
()
About this ebook
Michael Burgan
Michael Burgan has written more than 250 books for children and young adults. His specialty is history, with an emphasis on biography. A graduate of the University of Connecticut with a degree in history, Burgan is also a produced playwright and the editor of The Biographer’s Craft, the newsletter for Biographers International Organization. He first started writing for children as an editor at Weekly Reader before beginning his freelance career in 1994. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Read more from Michael Burgan
John Glenn Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lizzie Borden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shadow Catcher: How Edward S. Curtis Documented American Indian Dignity and Beauty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChernobyl Explosion: How a Deadly Nuclear Accident Frightened the World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ellis Island: An Interactive History Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War II Spies: An Interactive History Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Death at Kent State: How a Photograph Brought the Vietnam War Home to America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Untold Story of the Battle of Saratoga: A Turning Point in the Revolutionary War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War II Pilots: An Interactive History Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tank Man: How a Photograph Defined China's Protest Movement Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle of Bunker Hill: An Interactive History Adventure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spies of the Civil War: An Interactive Espionage Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hindenburg in Flames: How a Photograph Marked the End of the Airship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Voting Rights Act of 1965: An Interactive History Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFirst in Flight: How a Photograph Captured the Takeoff of the Wright Brothers' Flyer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Split History of World War I: A Perspectives Flip Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Vietnam War: An Interactive Modern History Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World War II Soldiers' Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTotal Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiracle on Ice: How a Stunning Upset United a Country Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Korean War: An Interactive Modern History Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFinding the Titanic: How Images from the Ocean Depths Fueled Interest in the Doomed Ship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExposing Hidden Worlds: How Jacob Riis' Photos Became Tools for Social Reform Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDaring Play: How a Courageous Jackie Robinson Transformed Baseball Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOlympic Gold 1936: How the Image of Jesse Owens Crushed Hitler's Evil Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Exxon Valdez
Related ebooks
On the Edge of Survival: A Shipwreck, a Raging Storm, and the Harrowing Alaskan Rescue That Became a Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hard Rivers: The Untold Saga of La Salle: Expedition II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Final Voyage of the Valencia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNewtucket Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Icebreaking Alaska Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE TUNNELS OF EARTH Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreat Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sea State Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ballard Locks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn to the Yukon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrade Wind Season: Intrigue, Adventure & A Search for Hidden Gold That Spans the Centuries. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThree Years in the Klondike (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost on Deck: Dr. Master's Ghost Stories, #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Rocks: The Dare Stones and the Unsolved Mystery of Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRocky Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Graveyard of the Pacific: Shipwreck Tales from the Depths of History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crater Lake National Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoal Harbor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Coral Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wellfleet:: A Cape Cod Village Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShipwrecks and Seafaring Tales of Prince Edward Island Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Children's For You
Summary of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPete the Kitty Goes to the Doctor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dork Diaries 1: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty and the Unicorn's Missing Colors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Into the Wild: Warriors #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Island of the Blue Dolphins: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Much Ado About Nothing (No Fear Shakespeare) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinnie the Pooh: The Classic Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cedric The Shark Get's Toothache: Bedtime Stories For Children, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Workbook on How to Do the Work by Nicole LePera: Summary Study Guide Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mind-Boggling Word Puzzles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Shadow Is Purple Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coraline Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The School for Good and Evil: Now a Netflix Originals Movie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tikki Tikki Tembo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Witch of Blackbird Pond: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice In Wonderland: The Original 1865 Unabridged and Complete Edition (Lewis Carroll Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Garden: The 100th Anniversary Edition with Tasha Tudor Art and Bonus Materials Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne of Green Gables: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Number the Stars: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Twas the Night Before Christmas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little House on the Prairie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Harriet the Spy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Thirty Days Has September: Cool Ways to Remember Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amari and the Night Brothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Exxon Valdez
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Exxon Valdez - Michael Burgan
Cover
Chapter One
THE BIG ONE COMES
In the small town of Valdez, Alaska, a group of about 30 residents crowded around a speakerphone in a local government office. It was Thursday evening, March 23, 1989, and the Easter weekend was about to begin. On the other end of the line was Riki Ott, an expert in marine science. Like many of the people in Valdez and other small towns along Alaska’s Prince William Sound, she also fished. Salmon and herring filled the waters of the sound. Fishing was an important part of the local economy — the money fishers made selling their catch helped businesses stay open. The sound was also home to bald eagles and other birds that caught the fish for food, along with sea otters, sea lions, orcas, and other mammals. Many of these animals also relied on the fish to survive.
Another natural resource besides fish had become important to the local economy, and to Alaska as a whole. In June 1977 oil had begun flowing from Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, above the Arctic Circle, through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). For 800 miles (1,287 kilometers), the pipeline crosses some of the coldest and most isolated parts of the United States. Finally the oil reaches the Valdez Marine Terminal. There it is loaded on giant ships called tankers, which take the oil to be turned into gasoline and other petroleum-based products.
Oil storage tanks lined the shore of the harbor in Valdez, Alaska, when oil began flowing through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System in 1977.
Many fishers on Prince William Sound, along with some indigenous Alaska people, had opposed the building of the pipeline and the terminal. They feared an oil spill could ruin their way of life. For the native Alaskans, that included hunting sea mammals that lived in the sound as well as catching fish. But with backing from the U.S. government, several oil companies were able to drill for the oil buried beneath the frozen Arctic land and transport it to other states.
The fear of an oil spill and pollution from the Valdez Marine Terminal had not faded in the years after TAPS opened. Ships leaving the terminal sometimes had accidents, even though a major spill hadn’t occurred. Riki Ott was one of the people worried about a spill. She could not attend the meeting in Valdez on March 23 because bad weather had made it impossible to fly there from her home in the small fishing town of Cordova on Prince William Sound. No roads linked the two communities, so flying would have been the fastest way there. Instead, Ott sat by herself in a room 70 miles (113 km) away and spoke to the people at the meeting in Valdez by phone.
Ott talked about the increasing number of tankers sailing to and from the Valdez terminal through the sound. Many of the ships, she noted, were getting too old to operate safely. And she warned that if a spill happened in open waters, it might not be contained and cleaned up quickly. Ott said the big one
¹ — a massive oil spill in Prince William Sound — was bound to happen. It’s not if, but when it occurs, and we’re not going to be prepared as a community.
²
As Ott spoke on the phone, a ship loaded with oil was about to leave the Valdez Marine Terminal. The Exxon Valdez was almost 1,000 feet (305 meters) long, and, as its name suggested, it was owned by Exxon, one of seven companies that operated the pipeline and terminal. The seven had formed the Alyeska Pipeline Services Company in 1970. Exxon was the largest of the companies involved and the largest U.S. oil company.