sumary of video exxon valdez
TRANSCRIPT
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7/30/2019 Sumary of Video Exxon Valdez
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Ornella Regalado E. Ingeniera en Alimentos-ESPOL
SUMARY OF VIDEO
EXXON-VALDEZ
Every day many ships crossing the oceans loading large volumes of oil. Oil companies
need permits to transport its oil by all routes. Alyeska is a consortium of oil companies
like Exxon, Mobil, Phillips, among others. They are allowed to transport oil and gas
from Alaska to other parts of the world. To transport must have a contingency plan in
case of an oil spill, a few years ago that plan was not as rigorous or was lacking in
certain areas.
On March 24, 1980 Exxon-Valdez oil tanker struck an iceberg. The accident happenedon a holiday and was located in Alaska. That oil spill was one of the largest in recorded
history.
There are many reasons why the accident happened. Among them is the fact that the
ship's captain and some of the crew were drunk, at the time of the accident was in
charge of the ship's third officer. The ship's captain had a history of alcoholism and had
been revoked license so during the accident had no license enabled. Another reason
was that the normal route navigation was changed in a direction not set; the change of
address was not reported so the ship could not be seen by radar and put on notice of
the risks to the surf there. Another reason was that during the crash was not taken
into account that the ignition warning light was red in the cockpit that the ship was
making contact with ice.
Regarding impacts are some classified in direct and non-direct. Direct impacts have gas
emission, bad odors, pollution of water and animals deaths. Insomuch as non-direct
impacts have the increase of oil price, city tourism decreases, and bad economy for
people who work as fishers, also health of the population may be affected in the long
term. Another non-direct impact that should be considered may be the rising price of
fish because the spill came to the shores where the fish incubated.
To control the oil spill there was many methods that were wanted to be used. One of
them was the use of chemical dispersants. The chemical dispersants function as a kind
of detergent on grease, with the dissipation of concentrated oil at sea. The fish breathe
all components of the dispersing chemicals and hydrocarbons remaining in them. Also
another problem with the dispersants was the amount of them; it was less than what
was needed. Another method was to place barriers around the islands and control the
spread of the spill and save fish hatchery areas. Another solution that would make was
to burn the oil, but this was not as profitable for the spill reached the coast.Combustion was carried out in a part of the affected areas but was bad consequences
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The accident was so catastrophic for a few reasons. Among them are: the first one,
that there was contradictions between responsible and their functions, nobody was
doing anything concrete while oil still spilling. In second place, is the contingency plan
was implemented and accepted by the laws or state environmental agencies to run but
the team did not exist. They had a contingency plan but the implementation was very
slow. They did not have a rigorous plan to follow, never knew they had to do, and did
not want to take responsibility because it implied pay expenses.