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A 13 square mile oil slick off the coast of Newport Beach is expected to hit beaches tonight, prompting coastal closures and emergency responses.
The oil slick is believed to have come from a pipeline leak and spilled into waters off Newport Beach on Saturday, stretching for miles. The spill is expected to hit shore in the next few hours, city officials tweeted.
Workers decided to shut down the pipeline and use pressure equipment to recover as much of the oil as possible shortly after the incident was reported at 12:18 p.m., said Kate Conrad of Beta Offshore, an oil producer from the Southern California involved in the operation.
“We were alerted quickly,” she said.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife also sent crews to the scene after several reports of bursts in the water about five miles off the coast of Newport Beach. The cleaning crews are mobilized, the department tweeted.
People are asked not to approach potentially affected wildlife as “they can cause more harm than good to animals”, but to call the Oiled Wildlife Care Network at (877) 823-6926, Eric Laughlin said , spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. A network team was mobilized for any rescue and rehabilitation work.
“Members of the public should avoid the oiled shoreline as the area is dangerous and should only be cleaned by qualified contractors,” Laughlin said.
Huntington Beach has been closed from the Santa Ana River Pier to the pier, the town said in a tweet at 7:21 p.m.
Kerry Keating, a Newport Beach resident, said she and other neighbors started to smell a “horrible and strong” smell like tar on Friday night and that several people from the Nextdoor Neighborhood Network also reported hearing a loud boom.
“We are all very concerned about marine life,” Keating wrote in an email.
The incident comes more than 30 years after a massive oil spill hit the Orange County coast.
On the afternoon of February 7, 1990, the tanker American Trader crashed its anchor in relatively shallow water off Huntington Beach, dumping nearly 417,000 gallons of crude and fouling popular beaches along the coast of Canada. Orange County. The oil killed fish and around 3,400 birds. The clean-up ended on April 3.
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