1988-89

With the National Contingency Plan in effect and international agreements on spill response and prevention in place, other environmental issues took the fore for much of the late 1970s on through to the mid-1980s. Then, a series of high-profile incidents returned oil spills to the front page:

• In January, 1988, an oil storage tank collapsed in Pennsylvania, spilling 3.7 million gallons near the Monongahela River.
• In March of 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of oil.
• In a freakish coincidence, three significant spills occurred in U.S. waters within a 12-hour period from June 23 to June 24, 1989.

Although much had improved in the years following the Torrey Canyon disaster, it was clear there was more work to be done to protect our environment from the potential harm of an oil or hazardous material release.