California oil spill investigation broadens as authorities investigate cause of ruptured pipeline

Investigators are looking at maritime activity going back a year to help determine what caused the recent southern California oil spill, officials said Friday.

The pipeline that carries oil from platforms off Huntington Beach to the port of Long Beach is showing signs of an old anchor impact and damage that has been around for so long that there is marine growth, said Captain Jason Neubauer, Chairman of the Coast Guard Marine Board. of Inquiry.

Part of the pipeline’s concrete shell was torn off, exposing the steel pipeline, he told a press conference. Growth in the region indicates they are not facing another strike, he said.

“This event could be multiple incidents and pipeline hitches” as a result of an “initial event which we are fairly confident occurred several months to a year ago,” Neubauer said.

The pipeline operator, Beta Offshore, a subsidiary of Amplify Energy Corp., said the leak started on Saturday, and an investigation in October 2020 indicated the pipeline was in good condition.

Neubauer said investigators would look into a storm in late January, when a ship may have inadvertently dragged an anchor. They will also look at possible “geological events” as factors, he said.

A fracture in the pipeline does not appear to be the result of a direct anchoring impact, Neubauer said, adding that an anchor or anchors dragging the pipeline could have indirectly caused the breach.

The pipeline has moved 105 feet at most and the crack is 13 inches, Neubauer said.

“It’s entirely possible that the anchor will break the rigid concrete casing and the pipe itself will bend,” he said.

The focus remained on maritime traffic to the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, he said.

“I’m convinced… the initial event that deflected the pipe itself was an anchor shot,” Neubuaer said.

The pipeline dumped approximately 144,000 gallons of heavy crude into the Pacific Ocean, causing initial shutdowns of the coast and fishing from Huntington Beach south to the San Diego County line.

Shoreline clean-up crews combed Orange County beaches on Friday and crews watched southern beaches as the ocean current moved in that direction, according to the Unified Response Command. spill case.

A total of 35 oiled animals, including 10 dead, have been recovered so far, according to an oil spill wildlife report updated by researchers at the University of California at Davis.

Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for Orange County.