Pipeline in oil spill may have had earlier damage
The pipeline that spilled at least 126,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast may have been damaged up to a year earlier, according to preliminary results of an ongoing investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Officials have said the leak occurred 3 miles off the coast of Newport Beach and involved a failure in a 17.5mile pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform called Elly that is operated by Beta Offshore.
The pipeline was intact as of last October, according to a routine survey conducted at that time by Beta Offshore, Coast Guard Capt. Jason Neubauer said Friday at a news conference.
“So that is going to be, for now, our starting point for investigating,” he said.
Investigators are “fairly certain” that an anchor from a “large vessel” struck the pipeline’s concrete casing, and dragged the pipeline more than 100 feet from its original location, Neubauer said.
Other “contributing incidents down the line, either anchor strikes or geological events” may have further damaged that section of the pipeline, Neubauer said.
Investigators are examining the damaged pipeline and the marine growth found on it and are trying to determine what happened, he said.
“From our standpoint, once the initial contact was made, it’s possible there was a small fracture or no fracture,” Neubauer said. “It would be impossible to tell at this time.”
A telephone message left for Beta Offshore was not immediately returned Saturday.
The spill created a 13-square-mile slick this month. Cleanup crews raced to contain the spill, which created an oil slick from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach.