Judge OKs $4.9M settlement of oil spill suit

Houston-based company gave no-contest plea to 6 misdemeanor charges for pipeline failure resulting 25K gallons to leak

A Houston company that operates the pipeline that leaked approximately 25,000 gallons of oil off the coast of Huntington Beach last year pleaded no contest Friday to a half-dozen misdemeanor charges and agreed to pay $4.9 million in fines and penalties to the state and county.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin during a hearing in a Santa Ana courtroom approved a plea deal that was publicly announced a day earlier between prosecutors at the Orange County District Attorney's Office and the California Attorney General's Office and Amplify Energy and two of its subsidiaries that operate the oil pipeline and oil rigs.

The plea means that Amplify has agreed to pay more than $18 million in fines and compensation in connection with the oil spill, including the $4.9 million to end the state court misdemeanor case, nearly $13 million in a plea deal approved Thursday to end a federal criminal case and a $1million settlement with the county of Orange.

Amplify has also reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by fishing companies, property owners and coastal businesses impacted by the October 2021 oil spill. The exact terms of that settlement, including how much Amplify will have to pay out, are still being worked out in federal court.

Amplify is not accused in the state and federal criminal cases of actually causing the pipeline rupture, which the company and state prosecutors have blamed on high-winds months earlier causing two ships to drag their anchors across the seafloor and the pipeline, pulling it like a bent straw.

Instead, Amplify has admitted in the state and federal plea deals to improperly handing the aftermath of the leak and failing to immediately notify the U.S. Coast Guard and other authorities.

An automatic leak detection system in the control center of Amplify's oil rig immediately detected the loss of flow in the pipeline. Alerted by related alarms, the crew repeatedly shut down and then restarted the pipeline, resulting in oil flowing through the damaged pipeline into the ocean waters. Amplify says the employees believed them to be false alarms.

Despite multiple signs the leaks were occurring, prosecutors allege that Amplify failed to notify authorities such as the Coast Guard until more than 16 hours after the first alarm. Oil sheens were visible in the water, and thousands of Orange

County residents reported smelling an intense odor of gas or tar prior to the spill being officially confirmed.

Along with the multi-million dollar fines, the plea deals have also placed Amplify under state and federal probation. The company has also agreed to install new leak-detection systems, improve their employee training and perform more indepth inspections.

The spill closed much of the Orange County coastline for weeks and grounded the Huntington Beach Air Show.