On March 24, 1989, the 987-foot super tanker Exxon Valdez outbound from Port Valdez, Alaska, with a full load of oil from Alaska's Prudhoe Bay passed on the wrong side of a lighted channel marker guarding a shallow stretch of Prince William Sound. The momentum of the large ship carried it onto Bligh Reef and opened a 6 x 20 ft hole in the ship's hull. Through this hole poured 257,000 barrels (11 million gallons) of crude oil, approximately 21% of the ship's 1.26 million barrel (53 million gallon) cargo, making it the largest oil spill in the history of the United States.

The oil spill resulting from the Exxon Valdez accident spread 38,0000 metric tonnes of oil along 1,500 miles of pristine shoreline on Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula, covering an area of 460 miles. Oil would eventually reach shores southwest of the spill up to 600 miles away.

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council...