Report details reasons for spill in 2015

LOS ANGELES — A Houston-based oil pipeline company responsible for a massive spill on the California coast a year ago didn’t do enough to prevent corrosion and its operators didn’t detect and react to the spill quickly enough, federal regulators said Thursday.

Plains All American Pipeline also didn’t have adequate systems in place to signal there was a major leak in the pipeline running near the Santa Barbara County coast, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in its final investigation report.

The report was issued on the one-year anniversary of the 120,000-gallon spill and just two days after the company was indicted in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on dozens of criminal charges.

Beaches remained closed for weeks in the aftermath as oil from the pipeline washed up more than 100 miles away in Los Angeles County and more than 220 birds, such as pelicans, and nearly 140 marine mammals, mostly sea lions, died.

The agency previously said severe corrosion led to a 6-inch gash in the 2-footwide pipe, but the final report goes into greater depth about failures to detect and prevent that corrosion and operator error in recognizing the leak.

Plains, which remotely operated the pipeline from a control center in Midland, Texas, did not initially detect the spill after a series of pump failures and a severe drop in pressure on the pipeline eventually led to a shut down.

The agency said alarms that should have been triggered by changes in pressure didn’t sound to alert staff to a problem and the control room didn’t realize there was a leak.

The controller even restarted the line after the spill occurred, the agency said.

Plains has apologized for the spill and said it was an accident that does not merit criminal charges.