A major oil spill has reached the sands of Southern California, killing birds and fish and forcing the closure of beaches. The Coast Guard has begun a cleanup operation of the spill that covers about 13 square miles.
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 and is a “potential ecological disaster,” Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said Saturday, reports CNN.
By Sunday morning, “We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted.
The leak, which started Saturday, reports NBC News, was possibly caused by a broken pipeline running to an oil rig – operated by Beta Offshore – located about 5 miles off the coast, and while the U.S. Coast Guard is investigating, officials said it was likely caused by a pipeline leak.
Long Beach-based Beta Offshore has been operating in the area where drilling has taken place for decades, and where the company operates three offshore oil platforms in the waters about 12 miles south of Long Beach. The platforms are the Elly, which was installed in 1980 about 9 miles off the coast. It processes crude oil from its two other platforms, dubbed Ellen and Eureka.
The platforms are situated in federal waters off of L.A. County, in an area of water called the Beta Field, known to be a major source of oil in local waters overseen by the Department of Interior.
Beta Offshore Operating Co., LLC, a subsidiary of Amplify Energy, is one of the largest oil producers in Southern California, according to the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, according to Pasadena Star News.
Huntington Beach officials canceled the final day of the Pacific Airshow and are encouraging people to stay away from the Santa Ana River Trail, Talbert Park, and Talbert Marsh areas and the beaches in the impacted areas to prevent contact with potentially toxic oiled areas.
