HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA — A major oil spill has struck the surfer’s paradise of Huntington Beach in California. Here are the details:
Reuters reports that a leak in an oil pipeline dumped more than half a million liters of crude oil on the famous beaches of Huntington Beach in California.
Disaster reaction units kicked into gear early Saturday, October 2, when boaters reported seeing an oily sheen on the water.
The oil spill was caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that takes oil from an oil production facility to shore.
The leaking pipeline is 28 kilometers long and runs 24 to 30 meters under the surface of the ocean.
It connects to an oil production platform named Elly, which in turn is connected by a walkway to a drilling platform named Ellen.
The facility began operating in 1980 in an area called the Beta Field.
Oil pulled from beneath the ocean and processed by Elly is taken by the pipeline to Long Beach.
Authorities say beaches will remain closed for weeks and maybe even months.
All of Huntington Beach was closed, and the spill covered beaches from the Huntington Beach Pier down to Newport Beach, a stretch of beachfront that’s popular with surfers and sunbathers.
Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program, told The Associated Press that “the oil spill just shows how dirty and dangerous oil drilling is, and oil that gets into the water. It’s impossible to clean it up so it ends up washing up on our beaches.”
