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California authorities announced Friday that crews were beginning to clean up a huge oil spill that spilled nearly 200,000 liters of oil and water into a canyon in Kern County, making it bigger – if less devastating – that the last two major oil spills the state.
The infiltration, which has been spreading since May, has stopped again, said Chevron spokeswoman Veronica Flores-Paniagua. The last current was Tuesday.
She and California officials said the spill was occurring near any watercourse and had not significantly affected the wildlife.
Chevron reported that 794,000 gallons (about 3 million liters) of oil and water had drained from the ground, using a steam injection to extract the oil from the large Cymric oilfield located approximately 56 km away. west of Bakersfield. Steam softens the thick stock so that it can flow more easily. It is a different process of hydraulic fracturing, which breaks up the underground layers of rock.
According to Chevron, about 70% of the fluid is water, which means that about 240,000 gallons (908,472 liters) of the mixture is oil.
Earlier this year, a judge fined Plains All American Pipeline nearly $ 3.35 million for provoking what had been the worst spill on the California coast in 25 years. A corroded pipeline discharged 529,942 liters (140,000 gallons) of crude oil in 2015 at Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles.
In 2007, the container ship Cosco Busan dumped nearly 200,000 liters of heavy fuel oil into San Francisco Bay after it hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in heavy fog.
The Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, which caused the escape of at least 80,000 barrels of crude oil into the Santa Barbara Canal, was the state's worst spill. Each barrel is 159 liters (42 gallons).
But the impact of this year's Chevron spill on birds and wildlife seems minimal, said Steve Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Office of Spill Prevention and Control of Wildlife and Wildlife. the flora of California. Chevron said the spill had sank in a dry stream bed, and Gonzalez noted that it would probably not rain anytime soon.
"There is no active waterway nearby, so that's the good news," he said.
However, environmental groups have said the Chevron spill was another sign of weakening regulation under the authority of a California agency struggling with difficulties. Governor Gavin Newsom this week sacked the head of the state's oil and gas division because of the recent increase in the number of hydraulic fracturing licenses and the results of a conflict of interest investigation with other employees of the division.
"At this point, they are stuck and they suck, suck the oil," Gonzalez said.
Chevron hires contractors to clean up the spill and pays the cleaning fee, he said, although the state office oversees the process. The investigation into the causes of seepage and clean up is somewhat delayed, he said, while officials ensured that oil or sinkholes did not release dangerous vapors that could trap workers or workers. heavy equipment.
The state issued a finding of contravention of Chevron's ordering it to discontinue steam injections over a distance of 600 feet (183 meters) around the area where it was occurring oozing. The company has also increased oil production from wells in this area. These two actions aim to reduce the underground pressure that can force the mixing of water and water on the surface.
The spill was reported for the first time by KQED-TV.
The Last Chance Alliance, which brings together environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, said the state's Petroleum, Gas and Geothermal Resources Division had adopted less stringent restrictions on injecting gas. steam earlier this year, "making these operations even more dangerous". Newsom fired division chief Ken Harris on Thursday.
Environmental protection groups reported that US regulators and the US Environmental Protection Agency approved an exemption last year to remove protections from an aquifer in the United States. Cymric oil field at the request of Chevron and other oil companies.
"California's industry-friendly hydrocarbon regulator continues to provide about as much protection as a screen on a submarine," Hollin Kretzmann, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. communicated.
Neither Chevron nor division spokesman Don Drysdale commented on these criticisms.
Kern County Public Health Services Department spokeswoman Michelle Corson did not comment on the spill, handing it over to the state agency.
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