On March 24,1989,an enrmous ship called the Exxon Vldez was traveling along the coast of Alaska.it was carrying about 50 million gallons of petroleum from the Alaskan oil fields.in prince William Sound,the captain ran the ship aground. Some of the ship's tank broke open and about 10.8 million gallons of petroleum poured out into the sound. it took three years and over10,000 workers to clean up the oil. In the court case about the accident, the judges decided that the Exxon company was responsible. The company had to pay $900 million for damages. Even that large sum was not enough to pay for all the workers, equipment, and research that was necessary. The total cost of the clean-up effort was about $2.5 billion.