The Associated Press is reporting the U.S. Coast Guard received the first report of a possible oil spill off the Southern California coast more than 12 hours before the company reported the major leak in its pipeline and a cleanup effort was launched, records show.
California and federal officials had strong indications of oil on the water off the Huntington Beach coast Friday evening, records reviewed by The Los Angeles Times show, more than 10 hours before the operator of an oil platform reported the oil spill to authorities.
All the documents are raising more questions about how the massive leak was handled in its first hours and why the public and local officials were not notified sooner. The documents seen by news agencies also raise an even bigger question – according to state Senator Tom Umberg, who represents a district where beaches have been hit by oil.
“We need to get to the ground truth as to when it was reported, to whom it was reported, and why – if governmental agencies knew there was a spill Friday night or even Saturday morning, they failed to notify those of us who have a responsibility [to the public],” he said.
A rough timeline of events
On Friday at 10:22 p.m., the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, a division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife charged with handling such emergencies, was first notified by the National Reporting Center, the designated point of contact for all oil and chemical discharges into the environment, of an “observed sheen in federal waters several miles off the coast of Huntington Beach”
The National Response Center, which is staffed by the Coast Guard, actually received two calls about the spill. The first call was from an anchored ship that noticed a sheen on the water, while the second call, reported about 45 minutes later, was from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reported satellite imagery showed the oil slick appeared to measure about 2.8 nautical miles long and up to .7 nautical miles wide.
Shortly after, federal and state authorities began to mobilize, forming a command center to handle the emerging crisis. But darkness likely prevented them from examining the slick up close. Nancy Kinner of the Center for Spills and Environmental Hazards at the University of New Hampshire said it is difficult and uncommon for authorities to work on spills at night.
Needless to say, the spill – equal to about 126,000 gallons of post-production crude – left the equivalent of 3,000 barrels of oil on the Southern California coastline, stretching for several miles, including washing into a protected marshland.
At 8:55 a.m. Saturday, Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the Office of Emergency Services, said his agency was notified by Amplify Energy — the company that owns the aging infrastructure – that a leak had occurred at 2:30 a.m. that morning.
The discrepancies become evident
Martyn Willsher, Amplify’s chief executive, said in a Monday press conference that the company did not know about the leak until Saturday. He said Amplify was unaware on Friday of reports from Orange County residents who reported smelling fuel that day.
“We … noticed the sheen, immediately contacted the platforms, and the platforms instantaneously started the incident plan,” Willsher said.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said the Coast Guard was not notified of the disaster until Saturday morning, contradicting records that say otherwise Federal and state authorities require rapid reporting of a spill. Failure to do so could lead to federal prosecution.
In 2016, a spill response plan for the Amplify platforms was submitted to federal regulators, calling for immediate notification of federal officials when more than one barrel of oil is released into the water. Releases greater than five barrels — or that threaten state waters or the shoreline — require immediate notification of the state fire marshal and California wildlife officials.
Richard Charter, who has worked on offshore oil issues for 40 years and is now a senior fellow at the nonprofit Ocean Foundation, says whenever the pressure in a pipeline drops, indicating a possible leak or failure in the system, an alarm is supposed to be triggered.
The pipeline was supposed to be monitored under an automated leak detection system that would report problems to a control room staffed around the clock on the oil platform known as Elly.
“You don’t have pressure drop in a pipeline and not know about it. And that raises the question: Why did the response kick in a day late?” said Charter, who added that federal regulators should be making sure these alarms and emergency protocols are up to date.
“Somebody did nothing. … You shouldn’t have to wait until the oil’s lapping up onto the shoreline to find out that you’ve had an oil spill. That’s ridiculous.”
