California oil spill: Dead birds, fish wash up on Huntington Beach, officials say

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Sunday morning, “We started to find dead birds and stranded fish on the shore,” Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted.

Foley said the leak occurred about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach and oil had started to wash up on the shores of the town of 200,000 people.

As of Sunday morning, “the leak was not completely stopped,” Huntington Beach said in a statement. He said preliminary repair work had been carried out to repair the oil spill site and “further repair efforts would be attempted in the morning.”

“Currently, the oil slick plume is approximately 5.8 nautical miles in length and extends from the Huntington Beach Pier to Newport Beach,” the press release said.

Carr said U.S. Coast Guard information indicates that the spill could be the result of an oil release from an offshore oil production operation near Huntington Beach.

The exact cause of the spill has not been determined and the owner of the pipeline is unknown, city officials said. They said the Coast Guard was investigating.

The burst of oil was first reported to the USCG shortly after 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, the Coast Guard said in a press release.

The Coast Guard has classified the situation as a major oil spill, Huntington Beach Marine Safety Chief Eric McCoy said.

Huntington Beach officials have canceled the last day of the Pacific Airshow and are encouraging people to stay away from the Santa Ana River Trail, Talbert Park and Talbert Marsh areas, and beaches in affected areas to avoid any contact with potentially toxic areas.

CNN’s Lechelle Benken contributed to this report

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