LOS ANGELES – A huge oil spill was killing wildlife and threatening California’s beaches today, in what officials said amounted to an “environmental catastrophe”.
Birds and fish had begun washing up on the shore as a 126,000-gallon slick of crude oil choked waters south of Los Angeles, after spewing from a pipeline connected to an offshore rig.
A 24km stretch of coastline was closed to the public and fishing was halted as crews scrambled to clean up one of California’s biggest spills in decades.
Beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months, Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr warned.
“Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are completely covered in oil,” she said.
The United States Coast Guard, which is coordinating the response, said oil amounting to less than 3% of the spill plume – estimated to be 5.8 nautical miles long – had been recovered, and that more than a mile of oil containment booms had been deployed.
“Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil-covered fish and birds washing up along our coastline,” including in protected wetlands, the city of Huntington Beach said on Sunday.
Amplify Energy, the company that operates the pipeline, said today that “as a precautionary measure, all of the company’s production and pipeline operations at the Beta Field have been shut down”.
CEO Martyn Willsher pledged the firm will do “whatever needs to be done” to take care of the spill, and said the company had significant insurance to cope with associated costs.
Willsher said a remotely operated vehicle had located the probable source of the leak, and divers would be visiting the spot this afternoon. – AFP, October 5, 2021
