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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 5 OctOber 2021

Ship’s anchor among possible causes of California oil spill

(AP) — Officials investigating had to be euthanized, he said. But it was not until Saturday after-
one of California’s largest oil In all, the Amplify subsidiary known noon that the Coast Guard said an oil
spills are looking into whether a as Beta Operating Co. has been cited “It’s much better than we had feared,” slick had been spotted and a unified
ship’s anchor may have struck a 125 times since 1980, according to a he said at a news conference Monday. command established to respond.
pipeline on the ocean floor, caus- database from the Bureau of Safety And it took until Saturday night for
ing a major leak of crude, author- and Environmental Enforcement, the Ziccardi said he’s “cautiously opti- the company to shut down the pipe-
ities said Tuesday. federal agency that regulates the off- mistic,” but it’s too soon to know the line.
shore oil and gas industry. The online extent of the spill’s effect on wildlife.
The head of the company that oper- database provides only the total num- In other offshore oil spills, the largest Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star
ates the pipeline said that divers have ber of violations, not the details for number of oiled birds have been col- Yacht Charter, said on Friday eve-
examined more than 8,000 feet (2,438 each incident. lected two to five days after the inci- ning “people were emailing, and the
meters) of pipe and are focusing on dent, he said. neighbors were asking, ‘Do you smell
“one area of significant interest.” The company was fined a total of that?’” By Saturday morning, boats
$85,000 for three incidents. Two were Amplify operates three oil platforms were returning to the marina with
An anchor striking the pipeline is from 2014, when a worker who was about 9 miles (14.5 kilometers) off their hulls covered in oil, he said.
“one of the distinct possibilities” be- not wearing proper protective equip- the coast of California, all installed
hind the leak, Amplify Energy CEO ment was shocked with 98,000 volts between 1980 and 1984. The com- Garry Brown, president of the en-
Martyn Willsher told a news confer- of electricity, and a separate incident pany also operates a 16-inch pipeline vironmental group Orange County
ence. when crude oil was released through that carries oil from a processing plat- Coastkeeper, decried a lack of initial
a boom where a safety device had form to an onshore storage facility in coordination among the Coast Guard
Coast Guard officials said cargo ships been improperly bypassed. Long Beach. The company has said and local officials in dealing with the
entering the twin ports of Los An- the oil appears to be coming from a spreading oil slick.
geles and Long Beach routinely pass The suspected pipeline leak sent rupture in that pipeline about 4 miles
through the area. 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of (6.44 kilometers) from the platform. “By the time it comes to the beach,
heavy crude into the ocean waters, it’s done tremendous damage. Our
“We’re looking into if it could have fouling the sands of famed Hunting- Before the spill, Amplify had high frustration is, it could have been
been an anchor from a ship, but that’s ton Beach and other coastal commu- hopes for the Beta oil field and was averted if there was a quick response,”
in the assessment phase right now,” nities. The spill could keep beaches pouring millions of dollars into up- said Brown, who lives in Huntington
said Coast Guard Lieutenant Com- closed for weeks or longer. grades and new “side track” projects Beach.
mander Jeannie Shaye. that would tap into oil by drilling lat-
Environmentalists had feared the oil erally. Some of the oil washed up on the
Houston-based Amplify Energy has might devastate birds and marine life shores of Orange County. The city
been cited 72 times for safety and in the area. But Michael Ziccardi, a “We have the opportunity to keep go- and state beaches at Huntington
environmental violations that were veterinarian and director of the Oiled ing for as long as we want,” Amplify Beach were closed, and late Sun-
severe enough that drilling had to be Wildlife Care Network, said only CEO Martyn Willsher said in an Au- day the city of Laguna Beach, just to
curtailed or stopped to fix the prob- four oily birds had been found so far. gust conference call with investors. the south, said its beaches also were
lem, regulatory records show. One suffered chronic injuries and He added there was capacity “up to closed.
20,000 barrels a day.”
Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr
Investors shared Willsher’s opti- said the beaches of the community
mism, sending the company’s stock nicknamed “Surf City” could remain
up more than sevenfold since the closed for weeks or even months.
beginning of the year to $5.75 at the The oil created a miles-wide sheen in
close of trading on Friday. The stock the ocean and washed ashore in sticky
plunged more than 40% in morning black globules.
trading Monday.
“In a year that has been filled with
The company filed for bankruptcy in incredibly challenging issues, this oil
2017 and emerged a few months later. spill constitutes one of the most dev-
It had been using cash generated by astating situations that our commu-
the Beta field and others in Oklaho- nity has dealt with in decades,” Carr
ma and Texas to pay down $235 mil- said. “We are doing everything in our
lion in debt. power to protect the health and safety
of our residents, our visitors and our
The White House was “monitor- natural habitats.”
ing the oil spill and are very engaged
in it,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher said
Monday. The Biden administration the pipeline and the company’s three
was working with state and local part- platforms were shut down Saturday
ners to contain the spill, assess the ef- night. The 17.5-mile (28.16-kilome-
fects and “address potential causes.” ter) pipeline that is 80 to 100 feet (24
to 30 meters) below the surface was
Some residents, business owners and suctioned out so no more oil would
environmentalists questioned wheth- spill while the location of the leak was
er authorities reacted quickly enough being investigated.
to contain the spill. People who live
and work in the area said they noticed Crews led by the Coast Guard-de-
an oil sheen and a heavy petroleum ployed skimmers laid some 3,700 feet
smell Friday evening. (1,128 meters) of floating barriers
known as booms to try to stop more
Booms were deployed on the ocean oil from seeping into areas including
surface Sunday to try to contain the Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre (10-hectare)
oil while divers sought to determine wetland officials said.
where and why the leak occurred. On
land, there was a race to find animals The oil will likely continue to wash
harmed by the oil and to keep the up on the shore for several days and
spill from harming any more sensi- could affect Newport Beach and oth-
tive marshland. er nearby communities, officials said.