On a late March evening in 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by the Exxon Shipping Company, spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
At the time, it was the largest single oil spill in U.S. waters. It covered 1,300 miles of coastline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, otters, seals and whales.
The world thought that was the end of the story. But there’s so much more to what happened that night in Alaska.
Our newest podcast reinvestigates the Exxon Valdez spill 35 years later, bringing new voices, new information and new stories to one of history’s most infamous environmental disasters.
With a background in health, science, and climate reporting, host Gordon Katic immerses listeners into one of the darkest days in marine history.
We hear from scientists and fishers who form unlikely friendships and unfold the trauma of how an oil spill impacts the environment, economy, and people as they fight against Big Oil.
Slick Science: The toxic legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is a collaboration between Cited Podcast and Canada’s National Observer.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On a late March evening in 1989, the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by the Exxon Shipping Company, spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound.
At the time, it was the largest single oil spill in U.S. waters. It covered 1,300 miles of coastline and killed hundreds of thousands of seabirds, otters, seals and whales.
The world thought that was the end of the story. But there’s so much more to what happened that night in Alaska.
Our newest podcast reinvestigates the Exxon Valdez spill 35 years later, bringing new voices, new information and new stories to one of history’s most infamous environmental disasters.
With a background in health, science, and climate reporting, host Gordon Katic immerses listeners into one of the darkest days in marine history.
We hear from scientists and fishers who form unlikely friendships and unfold the trauma of how an oil spill impacts the environment, economy, and people as they fight against Big Oil.
Slick Science: The toxic legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is a collaboration between Cited Podcast and Canada’s National Observer.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The city of Valdez, Alaska, is nestled in a deep fjord surrounded by mountains. Tourists come to the area to see the glaciers, fish in the cold mountain-fed water and visit the ice caves. The city is also a hub for oil tankers who come up the long fjord to the marine terminal to fill cargo tanks bigger than cathedrals with oil from the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
On March 23rd, 1989, a big new tanker owned by the oil giant Exxon was in one of the loading berths at the terminal. Getting into the terminal and filling the cargo tanks takes a full day. At nine p.m., the tanker, carrying more than a million barrels of oil, pulled away from the berth and headed to Long Beach, California.
For an oil tanker, it was a pretty ordinary journey down the fjord through Prince Edward Sound to the Pacific Ocean. It had been done more than 8,000 times since oil began flowing through the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
But this time, just three hours after leaving the marine terminal, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker got into trouble. This trouble would forever change the lives of the hundreds of residents of Prince William Sound.
Slick Science: The toxic legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill is a collaboration between Cited Podcast and Canada’s National Observer.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.