Texas oil company charged in massive spill off southern California coast
A Houston-based oil company and two subsidiaries have been charged over a massive oil spill off the coast of southern California in October that fouled waters and beaches and endangered wildlife.
Prosecutors say the spill was caused in part by failing to properly act when alarms repeatedly alerted workers to a pipeline rupture.
Amplify Energy and its companies that operate several oil rigs and a pipeline off Long Beach were charged by a federal grand jury with a single misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.
Investigators believe the pipeline was weakened when a cargo ship’s anchor snagged it in high winds in January, months before it ultimately ruptured on 1 October, spilling up to 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of crude oil in the ocean.
US prosecutors said the companies were negligent six ways, including failing to respond to eight leak detection system alarms over a 13-hour period that should have alerted them to the spill and would have minimized the damage. Instead, the pipeline was shut down after each alarm and then restarted, spewing more oil into the ocean.
Amplify blamed the unnamed shipping company for displacing the pipeline and said workers on and offshore responded to what they believed were false alarms because the system wasn’t functioning properly. It was signaling a potential leak at the platform where no leak was occurring, the company said.
The leak, in fact, was from a section of undersea pipe 4 miles (6.4km) away, Amplify said.
“Had the crew known there was an actual oil spill in the water, they would have shut down the pipeline immediately,” the company said.
The spill came ashore at Huntington Beach and forced about a weeklong closure of the city’s beaches and others along the Orange county coast. Fishing in the affected area resumed only recently, after testing confirmed fish did not have unsafe levels of oil toxins. It also seeped into delicate wetlands that are critical habitats for migratory and shorebirds, and other endangered species. It is still unclear how much of a lasting impact the spill had on plants and animals, even after the black globs were cleared from the beaches.
If convicted, the charge carries up to five years of probation for the corporation and fines that could total millions of dollars.
Orange county supervisor Katrina Foley said the indictment validates residents who had detected the spill a day earlier and reported it.
“It’s terrible that they basically lied to the community during the press briefings and caused people to believe that what they saw with their own eyes or smelled or knew was actually not true,” she said.
Pipeline safety advocate Bill Caram said the indictment paints a picture of a reckless company.
“I understand there are false positives on leak detection systems but this is our treasured coastline,” said Caram, director of the Bellingham, Washington-based Pipeline Safety Trust. “The fact that they kept hitting the snooze button and ignoring alarms, stopping and starting this pipeline and all the while leaking oil in the Pacific Ocean is reckless and egregious.”
Prosecutors also found that the pipeline was understaffed and the crew was fatigued and insufficiently trained in the leak detection system.
The indictment’s description of company personnel as fatigued pointed to a long-standing industry problem, said pipeline expert Ramanan Krishnamoorti with the University of Houston.
“Fatigue and overworked staff is old and trite and inexcusable,” he said. “This
has been demonstrated over and over again as being the single most important vulnerability.”