1989 when the exxon valdez oil tanker crashed into a reef off the coast of alaska. how "nbc nightly news" reported it that night. oil tanker smashed into a reef near valdez, alaska, today causing the worst oil spill since the alaska pipeline opened 12 years ago. the 1,000 foot super tanker filled with more than 1 million barrels of oil on its way to california. more than 300,000 barrels or 13 million gallons spilled out by early this evening. one spokesman for fishermen called it an incredible catastrophe. >> that 11 million gallons of oil spilled into prince william sound. it was the worst environmental disaster in history. that is, until the deepwater horizon oil rig exploded in the gulf of mexico in 2010. by the time that well was capped, 210 million gallons of oil had poured into the gulf. that's 199 million more gallons