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Sydney Mercer

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Article text courtesy of nytimes.com

California Oil Spill Renews Call for Drilling Ban

The most prominent visible sign on Monday of the major offshore oil spill that threatened some of Southern California’s most popular beaches was a single strip of yellow caution tape blocking the water.At Bolsa Chica State Beach in Orange County, surfers toweled off in the parking lot as glassy waves broke on the sand, although officially the shoreline was closed. In Huntington Beach near the pier, bikers rolled along the oceanside, passing joggers and walkers.Not far offshore, however, was a 13-square-mile slick that was first spotted on Saturday after a pipeline failure caused at least 126,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Pacific Ocean. It was California’s largest offshore leak since 2015, when Refugio State Beach near Santa Barbara was fouled by oil after a similar pipeline break.

Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places over the weekend as cleanup crews raced to try to contain the spill, which resulted from a failure in a 17.5-mile pipeline three miles off Newport Beach, officials said. The spill prompted fresh calls for a permanent end to offshore oil production in California, once a major oil-producing state.The pipeline transported oil from offshore platforms owned by Amplify Energy, a Houston company that was already in a financially precarious condition. More than 40 years old, the pipeline connects to a pumping station in Long Beach. Such pipelines are usually designed for a 25-year life, so investigators will probably examine how Amplify maintained and repaired its pipes. Earthquakes and other seismic activity, common in California, can damage pipes, as can ship anchors.