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On This Day: Exxon Valdez Captain Acquitted After Oil Spill
March 22, 2009 02:00 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On March 22, 1990, Capt. Joseph Hazelwood was acquitted of three criminal charges stemming from the Exxon Valdez's calamitous Alaska oil spill.
Exxon Valdez Captain Acquitted of Major Charges
Joseph L. Hazelwood was captain of the Exxon Valdez on the night of March 24, 1989, when a series of mishaps led to one of the largest oil spills in modern history. Under Hazelwood’s orders, the Valdez steered out of shipping lanes to avoid icebergs, but hit a reef at around midnight, dumping millions of gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound on Alaska’s south coast.
Exxon executives later said Hazelwood had been drunk during the accident, admitting they had allowed him back on the ship after treatment for his alcoholism, despite reports he had relapsed, NPR said.
He was indicted with a felony charge of second-degree criminal mischief, and misdemeanor charges of operating a vessel while intoxicated and of reckless endangerment. The felony charge could have carried a sentence of five years in prison and a $50,000 fine, while the two misdemeanor charges could have brought one year in prison and $5,000 in fines.
Blood alcohol tests administered hours after the accident were inconclusive, and the jury acquitted him of being under the influence. Hazelwood had left the ship’s bridge while in charge that night, a violation of company rules, and the jury ruled him negligent.
Hazelwood was acquitted of the felony and misdemeanor charges and convicted only of misdemeanor negligence for illegally discharging oil. He was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service, which he later spent picking up litter on Alaskan roadsides.
Mei Mei Evans, coordinator of the Oil Reform Alliance, said the trial obscured the main issue: “The whole system is culpable, and Exxon and Hazelwood are just two agents in a very complicated and very flawed system of extraction and transportation of petroleum.”
In 1991, Exxon settled charges brought by the state of Alaska, agreeing to pay $3.4 billion in fines and environmental restoration costs. A group of fishermen and native Alaskans later won an award of $2.5 billion in punitive damages from the company, but the U.S. Supreme Court reduced that amount to $507.5 million in 2008.
Exxon executives later said Hazelwood had been drunk during the accident, admitting they had allowed him back on the ship after treatment for his alcoholism, despite reports he had relapsed, NPR said.
He was indicted with a felony charge of second-degree criminal mischief, and misdemeanor charges of operating a vessel while intoxicated and of reckless endangerment. The felony charge could have carried a sentence of five years in prison and a $50,000 fine, while the two misdemeanor charges could have brought one year in prison and $5,000 in fines.
Blood alcohol tests administered hours after the accident were inconclusive, and the jury acquitted him of being under the influence. Hazelwood had left the ship’s bridge while in charge that night, a violation of company rules, and the jury ruled him negligent.
Hazelwood was acquitted of the felony and misdemeanor charges and convicted only of misdemeanor negligence for illegally discharging oil. He was sentenced to 1,000 hours of community service, which he later spent picking up litter on Alaskan roadsides.
Mei Mei Evans, coordinator of the Oil Reform Alliance, said the trial obscured the main issue: “The whole system is culpable, and Exxon and Hazelwood are just two agents in a very complicated and very flawed system of extraction and transportation of petroleum.”
In 1991, Exxon settled charges brought by the state of Alaska, agreeing to pay $3.4 billion in fines and environmental restoration costs. A group of fishermen and native Alaskans later won an award of $2.5 billion in punitive damages from the company, but the U.S. Supreme Court reduced that amount to $507.5 million in 2008.
Background: The Exxon Valdez oil spill
The Encyclopedia of the Earth states the events leading up to the spill involved a number of job changes; there were many changing of the guards for controlling the wheelhouse and steering the tanker between 9:12 p.m. and 12:04 a.m. when the tanker crashed.
“We’ve fetched up hard aground,” Hazelwood radioed the Coast Guard after hitting the reef. “We’re leaking some oil, and we’re going to be here for a while.”
The tanker lost 11 million gallons of crude oil and the “spill area eventually totaled 11,000 square miles,” resulting in a monumental disaster both for the Alaskan environment and for Exxon.
“The Exxon Valdez spill, though still one of the largest ever in the U.S., has dropped from the top 50 internationally,” writes the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. “However, it is widely considered the number one spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment.”
Though Exxon pledged to thoroughly clean up the spill, there remain thousands of gallons of oil in Prince William Sound that aren’t being removed. According to the trustee council, “This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4% per year. … At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely.”
“We’ve fetched up hard aground,” Hazelwood radioed the Coast Guard after hitting the reef. “We’re leaking some oil, and we’re going to be here for a while.”
The tanker lost 11 million gallons of crude oil and the “spill area eventually totaled 11,000 square miles,” resulting in a monumental disaster both for the Alaskan environment and for Exxon.
“The Exxon Valdez spill, though still one of the largest ever in the U.S., has dropped from the top 50 internationally,” writes the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council. “However, it is widely considered the number one spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment.”
Though Exxon pledged to thoroughly clean up the spill, there remain thousands of gallons of oil in Prince William Sound that aren’t being removed. According to the trustee council, “This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4% per year. … At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely.”
Reference: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council
The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council traces the history of the incident, provides a map displaying where the oil went, and offers a chart laying out the parties involved in the settlement.
Source: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council
Related Topic: Ranking the world’s worst oil spills
The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation provides a chart of the “Major Oil Spills Since 1967” in Table 3 on the Web page. Although the Exxon Valdez spill is so “well known,” according to the site, it only ranks 35th on the list of worst oil spills, releasing 37,000 tonnes of oil. By comparison, the number one major oil spill on the cart is the Atlantic Empress disaster of 1979, in which 287,000 tonnes of oil were spilled off Tobago in the West Indies.
Source: The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court case concerning Exxon Valdez, Hank Green of EnviroWonk.com compiled a list in February 2008 of the worst oil spills in history. Green places Exxon Valdez at number 35, similarly to The International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation’s chart above, but offers a different order for the first 10. Green cites the 520 million gallon intentional spill during the Iraq war in 1991 as the worst. He writes: “These ten oil spills, all massively larger than the Exxon Valdez, were all smaller new stories, either because the ships were offshore, or dropped their toxic loads in less developed parts of the world. The Valdez spilled 10 million gallons off the coast of Alaska, the smallest spill in the top ten was four times larger.”
Source: EnviroWonk.com
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