[ad_1]
The pipeline responsible for the enormous Oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach last week could have been damaged for up to a year before it spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Friday. The pipeline was likely struck by an anchor multiple times and dragged over the ocean floor for more than 100 feet, officials said.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Coast Guard determined from video evidence that a ship anchor likely snagged and damaged the submarine pipeline, which now has a 13-inch linear fracture, Coast Guard Captain Jason Neubauer said at a press conference on Friday. Since the initial fracture, Neubauer said the pipeline has seen a “significant increase” in damage.
“This refocused the scope and timing of our investigation to at least several months to a year,” he said, adding that the last time the pipeline was identified as intact was in October 2020. Since then, Neubauer said the pipeline had been dragged 105 feet across the ocean and suffered casing damage.
An investigation into the chronology of the events leading up to the spill is underway. Officials said they would analyze the equivalent of a year of automatic identification system data and radar images from multiple sources.
“This data will take some time to review and we already have several leads,” said the captain.
The spill from an offshore oil rig, identified last weekend, is believed to have initially leaked 126,000 gallons of oil near Huntington Beach in southern California. California Governor Gavin Newsom said a emergency state, and the Orange County Supervisory Board declared a local emergency in the wake of what some considered the largest oil spill the region has ever seen.
But this week, officials said they may have miscalculated when initially estimating the extent of the spill. According to CBS Los Angeles, US Coast Guard Captain Rebecca Ore said there was “speculation of about 30,000 gallons” – far less than the original estimate of 126,000 gallons. The figures have not yet been confirmed.
“But that would make more sense,” she said at a press conference, according to CBS Los Angeles.
The first boat left Newport harbor after five days of closure on Friday, CBS LA reporter Mechele Gile reported. Surrounding beaches suffered closures in the wake of the oil spill, and California State Parks said Wednesday it was “actively working” to reopen closed beaches amid “this tragic incident.”
[ad_2]
Source link