Engineering Ethics

86 Engineering Ethics: An Industrial Perspective

When Young relayed Levy’s concerns to the Coast Guard, its comman-

dant, Admiral James Gracey, wrote back that the new radar would be as

good as the old, without compromising safety. A Coast Guard radar expert

made the same claim at the Exxon Valdez disaster hearing in 1989.

However, within a year of the debut of the Raytheon equipment, Coast

Guard Commander Michael Cavett complained about poor reception

during the bad weather common to the Sound and asked for an upgrade of

radar at Potato Point. Cavett wrote in April, 1985 that “the installation of a

10 cm radar system could improve tracking ability in rain, wind, and snow.

I request one of the 3 cm radar systems at Potato Point be replaced with a

10 cm system.” Note that a shorter wavelength enables better definition of

the target on the radarscope, but for a shorter range. During precipitation,

3 cm radar is more attenuated (reduced) than is 10 cm radar. This 3 cm

system was still in use when the Exxon Valdez collided with Bligh Reef

(Jones, 1989).

REFERENCES

Banerjee, S., Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land. Seattle: Mountaineers

Book, 2003.

Barrionuevo, A.,A dirty little footnote to the energy bill. NY Times, C1,April 15, 2005.

Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), Federal Judge Directs ExxonMobil to Pay Punitive Damages &

Interest to Those Harmed by Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Press Release, January 28, 2004.

Diamond, J., Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005,

329–357.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council (EVOSTC), Oil Spill Facts: Questions & Answers.

April 30, 2005. http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/facts/qanda.html.

Jones, S., Blueprint for disaster: Empty promises. Anchorage Daily News, A1, October 15,

1989.

Keeble, J., Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound. Spokane,

WA: Eastern Washington University Press, 1999.

Kennedy, R. F., Jr., Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals

Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy. New York: HarperCollins,

2004, 108.

Kolbert, E.,Wasted energy. New Yorker, April 18, 2005, 55–56.

Mickelson, B. J., MTBE Contamination of Ground Water. Internal Exxon Memorandum,

August 23, 1984. http://www.ewg.org/reports_content/withknowledge/pdf/068_002.pdf.

Palast, G., Exxon lubricated by Bush judges. The Observer, B1, September 2, 2003.

Shabecoff, P., Exxon vessel hits reef, fouling water that is rich in marine life; largest U.S. tank

spill spews oil off Alaska coast. NY Times, A1, March 25, 1989.

Skinner, S. K., et al., The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: A Report to the President. Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Government Printing Office, 1989. 68 pp. http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/valdez/04.htm.

United States Code (USC), 2005. www.straylight.law.cornell.edu/uscode.

U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (USDIBLM), TAPS Guide. 2005.

http://tapseis.anl.gov/guide/index.cfm.

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