California spill
As much as 109,000 gallons flow into sea off California coast
Up to 105,000 gallons of oil may have gone into ocean.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — An underground oil pipeline that ruptured in Santa Barbara County could have released as much as 105,000 gallons of crude, with tens of thousands estimated to have gone into the ocean, officials with the oil company said Wednesday.
The company, Plains All American Pipeline, said its scenario was based on the line’s elevation and flow rate, which averages about 50,400 gallons an hour. Investigators won’t find a cause for the rupture until they excavate the 24-inch wide line, which was installed in 1987, said Karen Rugaard, spokeswoman for Plains All American Pipeline.
When the line ruptured Tuesday afternoon, the oil seeped through the ground to a culvert and flowed into the ocean just off Refugio State Beach. While wildlife and state park officials don’t have an estimate on the environmental impact, some wildlife will “likely” be affected in the coming days, said Mark Crossland, a captain with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, said.
The rupture occurred on an 11-mile-long pipeline owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline and is part of a larger oil transport network centered in Kern County.
The pipeline was designed to carry about 150,000 barrels of oil per day, Plains All American Pipeline officials said. This specific line has never had a rupture before, a company official said.
An integrity check on the line was done two weeks ago, but results had not come back before Tuesday’s rupture, said Darren Palmer, district manager for Plains All American.
“We’re sorry this accident has happened, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience to the community,” Palmer said.
The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management estimated it could take at least three days to clean up the spill.
U.S. Coast Guard ships were on the water skimming the oil, and others were corralling the slicks with booms. The cleanup effort will not include dispersants, a Coast Guard official said.
“This stretch of the California coast is unique in the world,” Santa Barbara County Supervisor Doreen Farr, who represents the area where the spill occurred, said at the news conference. “This is more than an inconvenience, this is a disaster.”
Linda Krop, chief counsel for the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Center, visited Refugio State Beach late Tuesday and said she was alarmed to find little response to the spill.
“There was oil that was covering the beach and also being washed out to sea,” she said. “To me this was a very significant event. The beach was just blanketed in black tar.”
She said there was little active response to the spill.
Krop said the spill was particularly alarming because it was the result of a ruptured pipeline, a method considered safer than other modes of transporting oil, such as tankers.
“This spill happened from a pipeline that was built with supposed safeguards,” she said.
“Pipelines tend to be a safer . but even a pipeline can leak and rupture and cause a really significant spill.”
Krop was worried about how far the slick would spread through the Santa Barbara Channel, which she called “one of the most biologically rich places on the planet.”