After the Exxon Valdez ran aground and 270,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound, the clean up began. Four days after the oil spilled, it covered 300 square miles of beaches, islands, and fish hatcheries. People were finding oil on the Alaska Peninsula. That's almost 600 miles from where the spill site was.

The people of Alaska started cleaning up the oil fifteen hours after the tanker grounded. They washed rocks by hand, they used pressured hoses to spray down the oil, and they put fertilizer on the oil. Some of the instruments they used were booms (floating barriers to oil), skimmers (boats that skim the ocean and collect oil), sorbents (big sponges used to absorb oil), chemical dispersants and biological agents (which break down oil), in-site burning (method used for burning freshly spilled oil), vacuum trucks, shovels, and road equipment.

The method they used to clean up the oil depended on the weather, the type and amount of oil, and the distance from the shore to where the oil was. It also depended on whether or not there were people living on the beaches, or if there were animal habitats in the area. The clean up went on from 1990 to 1992.