[ad_1]
Authorities are investigating whether a ship’s anchor may have struck an off-shore pipeline in Southern California, send about 126,000 gallons crude oil in the Pacific Ocean and leaving officials fight to avoid an “ecological catastrophe”.
Martyn Willshire, chief executive of the Houston-based energy company and owner of the pipeline operator, told reporters on Monday that the theory is a “distinct possibility”.
A US Coast Guard official said authorities were looking for “where exactly these ships are” that may have struck the pipeline, which connects to a processing platform 14.5 miles offshore.
Ships carrying cargo to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – two of the busiest in the United States – can drop their anchors while awaiting entry, the official said, although they are guided and monitored during the transit.
“We are investigating whether this could have been an anchor from a ship, but it is in the evaluation phase right now,” said US Coast Guard Lt. Commander Jeannie Shaye.
Earlier, officials said the slick had reached nearly 25 miles, stretching from Dana Point to Huntington Beach.
Beaches in the town and state of Huntington Beach have been closed, and the town of Laguna Beach, just to the south, said on Sunday evening that its beaches were also closed. The closure came in hot weather that would have brought large crowds to the sand for volleyball, swimming and surfing. Yellow warning tape was threaded between the lifeguard towers to keep people away.
Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the community’s beaches are known as ‘Surf City’ could stay closed for weeks even months. The oil created a sliver several miles wide in the ocean and washed up on the shore in sticky black blood cells.
The port of Newport has been closed to maritime traffic to prevent oil from entering the port, according to a statement from Newport Beach.
Fisheries in the affected area have also been closed “to give time to investigate impacts on fish,” Foley said.
“Also avoid fishing off piers, bridges, boats and docks,” she added. A map showed that waters up to 6 miles from shore could have been contaminated by the spill.
People have also been advised not to attempt to capture oiled wildlife.
“You can end up chasing them in the water, and they can die. So leave them alone,” said Debbie McGuire, executive director of the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center. People are advised to call authorities if they see any oiled wildlife.
“The less stress on these birds when we capture them, the better because they’re already compromised, they’re oiled up,” McGuire said.
Video center showed staff treating the birds for transfer and cleaning.
Fourteen boats were deployed to conduct oil recovery operations Sunday afternoon, while four planes were assessed from above, officials said. More than 100 members of the government were responsible for the intervention on land.
Officials said on Sunday that about 3,150 gallons of oil had been recovered from the water, adding that crews had put up about 5,360 feet of floating barriers known as booms to try to prevent more oil from escaping. infiltrate areas such as Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre wetland.
But the impact on the local ecosystem was already evident.
“We started to find dead birds and stranded fish on the shore,” Foley tweeted on Sunday.
A Monday statement from Amplify Energy noted that Beta Offshore, a subsidiary, “first observed and notified the US Coast Guard of an oil flicker about four miles off the southern California coast and launched its plan. prevention and response to an oil spill “.
“As a precaution, all of the company’s production and pipeline operations on the Beta field have been halted,” the statement said.
But residents and business owners are wondering if the leak was dealt with quickly enough. People who live and work in the area said they noticed a sheen of oil and a strong smell of oil on Friday evening.
As early as Friday night, Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter, said that “people were sending emails and neighbors were asking ‘are you feeling this? “”. in oil, he said.
Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, denounced an initial lack of coordination between the coast guard and local authorities in the face of the spread of the oil spill.
“By the time he gets to the beach he’s done a tremendous amount of damage,” Brown said. “Our frustration is that it could have been avoided if there had been a quick response.”
In 2014, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement fined Beta after “crude oil was released by the flare boom.”
“A safety device was bypassed for reasons other than start-up, maintenance or testing and was not properly reported or monitored,” the records said.
[ad_2]
Source link