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The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on 24 March 1989, was an industrial accident but a technological and organizational disaster. The biological impacts were spread by subsequent natural events (severe storms) - also unexpected. The movement of oil into vulnerable natural habitats and over great distances further highlighted the lack of preparedness to stop it. Even without the storms, neither technological knowledge nor the equipment then available could have contained the oil once it was released.
The physical problems were magnified by organizational confusion of responsibility, allocation of authority, and decision-making. Local community capacities to respond creatively were inhibited; instead, external plans and people were imposed. The subsequent social disruption for some communities was severe and, perhaps, long lasting. It would seem, in retrospect, that everything that might go wrong, did.
However, partly because of national and international attention to the series of embarrassing events and controversies, an array of constructive steps has been taken. New regulations are in place. Monitoring devices in many forms have been installed - radars, escort vessels, added personnel, and citizens' advisory groups. New positions, new organizations, and new publications have been funded, at least temporarily. Numerous scientific studies have been published and more are forthcoming. New knowledge, and a fuller sense of shared responsibility, has resulted. Human creativity is reflected in scientific plans, data, and ideas, and in the arts - poems, music, pictures, sculpture, cartoons, and books. A regional museum has been funded with part of the settlement funds.
This disaster, like other major disruptions both natural and technological, has forced the human species to think new thoughts and to take creative preventive steps. If we can learn, apply, and remember the lessons learned, the increasingly industrialized world of the twenty-first century will be more cognizant of, and responsible for, the shared risks of international economic development. Oil transportation is just one of many aspects of modern industry that links us increasingly across boundaries, including ocean highways.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill is a classic example of "self-organized criticality" (Bak and Chen 1991). The accumulated complexities of technology, people, and organizations had reached a critical state. All it took was one small error, embedded in an incredibly complex industry, and the wall came tumbling down. The oil flowed; the plans failed; the storms came; the inadequacies of regulations, surveillance, equipment, and organizations were highlighted. Emotions were heightened; money was applied; and blame was spread from person to person, place to place, organization to organization. Like the single grain of sand in Bak and Chen's experiment that set off the sand avalanche, or the critical threshold of pressure on the earth's crust that initiates an earthquake, or the pile-up of rumours and emotions on Wall Street that sparks a crash, or the single bullet at a critical juncture of history that starts a war, an error on a tanker initiated problems ultimately revealing the intricate network of how one industry is linked to a multitude of others; how one agency overlaps another; how utterly fragmented are the nation, industry, and government at the end of the twentieth century.
If the symptoms of "self-organized criticality" can be recognized in time, protective actions can be taken. But until our knowledge includes a level of refined understanding of the interconnectness of industries, government, and the diversity of local human cultures, including those embedded in corporations and agencies, we remain vulnerable for yet another surprise, zapped again, at unexpected times and in unexpected places.
Obviously, we must increase awareness of technological risks, as well as how they might be compounded by subsequent natural disasters (or vice versa), and we must be alert to more appropriate and sophisticated ways of preventing disasters and minimizing impacts. But it also behooves us to watch for, recognize, and encourage local recovery capabilities.
In this chapter I have indicated how a regional approach with time depth adds a historical dimension for understanding the ability of communities to recover, or not. Three major disasters, each the largest of its kind in the twentieth century in North America, struck the Central North Pacific. Each led to new knowledge and the rearrangement of people. Usually, we think of disasters as destroyers of cultures and civilization; perhaps, in some cases, they provide building blocks. Like small mutations within a genetic structure slight rearrangements of ACTG codes in DNA - technological and natural disasters may provide organizational "mutations" for society, with concomitant responsibility for us to select new directions, more wholly conscious of the ramifications those choices may have on the long-term survival of an increasingly tightly knit species - our own (Davis 1991).
In the search for indicators of community recovery, many categories might be considered. I suggest that small communities have greater abilities for recovery than are usually recognized. They have kinship, family, history, identity, past experiences, local leadership, all combined and activated by a major event. Resolution of local pre-disaster conflicts may need to occur as part of recovery. External involvement by attorneys, social services, and even inappropriate research, may inhibit recovery processes and prolong or sharpen awareness of the original pain, extending in time the negative impacts.
The Central North Pacific bears many markers of disasters, vestiges of past disruptions - layers of ash from the 1912 Katmai eruption, tangled groves of dead trees in areas that subsided during the 1964 earthquake, and occasional pockets of oil from the 1989 spill. These are remnants of debris in an environment that can - under many circumstances - heal itself and are small markers compared with the larger impact of the original event. Less visible are the remnants of memories in the minds of survivors and communities.
But back to the critical question: have the communities recovered? I cannot answer that directly, for I cannot ask those who were involved, until the court cases are settled and people can talk without fear of jeopardizing their own financial settlements or those of their neighbours. Clearly, social science has not recovered. We may never again enjoy the special kind of independent pursuit of ideas, relationships, and insights that comes from creative research unfettered by the ominous threat of litigation. Constraints on human ideas and discussion may be one of the most enduring negative impacts of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.
Chronology of the first 10 days
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
1. This is by no means the largest oceanic oil spill. For example, official estimates released on 13 December 1992 indicate that a Greek tanker spilled 21.5 million gallons of crude oil off the coast of Spain - about twice the volume spilled by the Exxon Valdez (see New York Times, 14 December 1992).
2. Named by Vancouver in 1794 for Captain Thigh, later famous for the mutiny on the Bounty.
3. I gave a paper at that meeting, comparing the earthquake and the oil spill, and I recall being extremely concerned about it. I had resolved by that time that I would maintain my independence and integrity, and assume that neither side would subpoena me. However, the fear still haunts me. I did not pursue funding for the 200 pages of draft material written under a contract with the North Pacific Rim, funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It was clear that any positive findings might be used against the Native persons and their ultimate settlement. I felt, and still feel, restraint on trying to report here that there were any benefits to the events related to the oil spill.
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