Trans-Alaska Pipeline Terminal

Across the inlet from town, Valdez' ever-pumping heart once welcomed visitors, but since September 11, 2001, stricter security protocols have closed it to the public. From the end of Dayville Rd you can still get a peek at the facility, including the storage tanks holding nine million barrels of oil apiece. But heed the dire warnings: plenty of septuagenarian RVers have been pulled over and interrogated for getting too close.

Those truly interested in the terminal can learn more about it at Prince William Sound Community College, which for a fee offers a pipeline exhibit and thrice-daily 'video tour', featuring great photography and a narrative that amounts to little more than Big Oil propaganda.

Exxon Valdez disaster: It was the worst environmental disaster in modern American history: on March 23, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez left Valdez' Trans-Alaska Pipeline Terminal without the escorts regulations had once required and with its captain tippled. It sailed through Valdez Narrows, swung wide to avoid icebergs from Columbia Glacier, failed to return to its shipping lane, and grounded on Bligh Reef. At least 11 million gallons of oil spilled into Prince William Sound. By a trick of the storm the slick swept westward, fouling 1400 miles of coastline but missing its home port entirely. Within days, countless animals perished: perhaps 250,000 seabirds, 2800 otters, 250 bald eagles - and billions of salmon and herring eggs. Only about 8% of the slick was reclaimed by human efforts.

Nearly two decades later, it's still not over - ask anyone who lives here. Oil from the Exxon Valdez can be collected just beneath the surface of beaches throughout the Sound. While certain fisheries have rebounded, herring stocks haven't recovered at all, the Dungeness crab population remains low and many pink-salmon runs have been eliminated. Loons, harlequin ducks, otters and seals still suffer the effects of the spill. Moreover, billion of dollars in fines awarded in a class-action lawsuit have yet to be paid out.

Thankfully, other legacies of the disaster are more inspiring. Long-recommended security measures have finally been enacted at oil-processing facilities across the nation. Double-hulled tankers, once a pipe dream of environmentalists, will be a pipeline requirement by 2015; some are already in service. Tugs must once again escort tankers passing through Prince William Sound. And the Exxon Valdez itself, now renamed the SeaRiver Mediterranean ,has been banned from ever returning to Valdez.