Due to the challenges of the area, including a rugged coastline, remote location, sensitive wildlife habitat, and fisheries, newer, less-tested cleanup methods were employed right away, including chemical dispersants. There are concerns about dispersants pushing oil into the water column where it can hurt other organisms, so it's not a perfect solution, but it can help keep oil off animals on the surface of the water.The first round of chemical dispersant Corexit 95271 was applied from a helicopter and missed most of the target area. Six more applications of the dispersant were made between March 24 and 28, and three more were tried in April, but monitoring tests showed "no significant benefits" from the dispersant being used. A total of about 45,000 gallons of dispersant was sprayed.3Some of the oil was burned off, and this was found to be a more successful method of getting rid of oil than dispersants. The first test burned off about 15,000 gallons of spilled crude oil, and plans were made to use the technique in other areas, but a storm system on March 27 spread the oil slick — which had been one big connected bunch of floating oil — far and wide, so burning was no longer a viable option.3As hours and days ticked by, the oil became more difficult to clean up than if it had been contained quickly after the spill. Over the months following the spill, storms, wind, and ocean currents distributed the spilled oil over 1,300 miles of shoreline, from the reef in Prince William Sound to the Gulf of Alaska.2