Harrison Lavelle
Staff Writer
On Oct. 2, emergency response crews raced to curtail a sizable oil spill impacting the coast of California’s Orange County. AP reported that the clean-up crews were dispatched after a 13 square mile oil slick was sighted only a few miles away from the shoreline. This was one of the most significant spills to hit California since the costly 1969 Santa Barbara disaster, which saw over 4 million gallons of oil discharged into the sea.
Early investigation revealed that a breached underwater pipeline was responsible for the leakage, though the cause of the pipe burst has not yet been made certain. Authorities are expected to keep affected beaches closed for the next few weeks as environmental crews work hastily to judge and address the extent of the damages. Over 126,000 gallons of oil inundated the waters surrounding the popular tourist destination of Huntington Beach.
Responders reported that some fish and birds died after being overwhelmed by oil, but that the scale of the breach’s impact on other wildlife was not yet known. The area in question is home to numerous endangered species, with the US Coast Guard quickly working to secure vulnerable marshlands surrounding portions of the beach. Constituting the third significant spill in the last few decades, the leak has once again raised environmental concerns about off-shore oil infrastructure.
Environmental workers have stated that the damage to the natural ecosystem was less severe than originally expected, though the long term impact remains unknown. The oil stench has reportedly vanished, with the surface water sheen lessening as well. Despite satisfaction with the modest short term recovery, advocates fear that future disasters could irrevocably harm wetland environments if changes are not made to the oil status quo. Calls to ban offshore drilling have been reinvigorated in recent weeks and were further emboldened after it was recently reported that the Amplify pipeline may have been damaged a year before the spill.
Investigators attempting to determine the cause of the breach have posed a ship anchor as a potential culprit. Countless ships remain anchored outside of California’s ports owing to global supply chain issues and theory proponents believe one freight ship might have mistakenly dropped its anchor on the pipeline, which lies about 80 feet beneath the surface. Amplify, the company that owns the pipeline, has sent divers down to the seafloor to gather evidence for the anchor theory.
