Costs and Legacy

Thirty years after the spill, Prince William Sound's shoreline is still contaminated with 21,000 gallons of oil, which is just as toxic today as it was right after the spill. It could take centuries to dissipate completely. While some species have recovered, such as sea otters, which have returned to pre-spill numbers, others have not. It is feared that one of the two pods of orca whales in the Sound will die out.

The spill also affected the human communities along the Southcentral coast. Cordova, Valdez, Chenega, Seward, Nanwalek, Port Graham, Seldovia, Homer, and Kodiak communities were all greatly impacted. The tourism industry immediately lost over 26,000 jobs. Over 15,000 Alaskan subsistence permit holders lost their source of food. 

The oil spill played a role in the collapse of salmon and herring fisheries in Prince William Sound in the early 1990s. Fishermen went bankrupt, and the economies of coastal towns, including Valdez and Cordova, suffered in the following years. Stocks of herring, once a lucrative commercial fishery for Prince William Sound fisherman, have never fully recovered and remain closed. In total, it is estimated that the spill caused $2.8 billion in economic costs to Alaska.

The Alaskan court ordered Exxon to pay $5 billion in punitive damages in 1994. After 14 years of lawsuits and appeals, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Court found that Exxon's actions were "worse than negligent" but ruled that the punitive damages were excessive. The final ruling lowered Exxon's damages to $507.5 million.  Exxon paid about $2 billion in cleanup costs and $1.8 billion for habitat restoration and personal damages related to the spill.