How long has Oil spills been a problem?

Large oil spills from wells and tankers have been a problem for at least 40 years (1970 - 2010). Certainly in the last 20 years, we have improved our ability to handle spills, but also face new problems with deep water and hostile environment drilling. Super tankers being common in the 1980's lead to spills. Large spills go as far back as 61 years.

Warfare produced the greatest oil spills, particularly the German attack on US tankers and bunkers (1939- 42) and the purposeful release of oil from Kuwait during the first Iraq War (1991).

The size of the problem is not always tied to the size of the spill. I've included a list of spills and some big ones that you probably never heard of, because they did not occur near a shore line.

One link shows graphically that oil spills from tankers reached a peak in the 1980's after which improved safety measures and vessel construction apparently reduced the number of accidents.

Answer:

Shortly after the first commercial oil well as drilled in North America in Oil Springs Ontario (James Miller Williams 1858) a gusher was drilled in 1862 by Hugh Nixon Shaw. The flow of oil reached what is now called Black Creek and Lake St. Clair.