Huntington Beach’s normally bustling beach, which welcomes tourists with a “Surf City USA” sign, sat empty on Monday.
And a little further south, teams in white hazmat suits work to protect the delicate wetland ecosystem near the mouth of the Santa Ana River—a vital habitat for migratory birds that are wrapped in shimmering oil ribbons.
According to an updated estimate from the city of Huntington Beach, the breach, widely reported on Saturday, occurred about five miles from Huntington Beach in Orange County, in which 1,44,000 gallons of crude oil spilled.
And while the reason is being investigated, questions are also being raised on the timeline of the notification.
According to documents reviewed by CNN, California officials were notified of reports of an oil sheen at the site of the pipeline spill, more than 12 hours before the line’s operator, Amplify Energy Corp., told state and federal officials. told. It was informed. .
But in an interview with CNN on Monday, Amplify CEO Martin Wilser said company personnel detected a flare on Friday night, not Saturday morning. Wilser said there are equipment to detect the leak without looking at the oil spill, but there were no reports of a possible leak in the line before Saturday.
Captain Rebecca Ore, commanding officer for the US Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach, said the spill, which stretches from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach, is likely to move south based on wind and currents.
Ore said Monday that efforts to respond to the spill had doubled since Sunday afternoon.
“It has devastated our California coast in Orange County, and it is having a tremendous impact on our ecological preservation as well as our economics,” Foley told CNN. “We need answers and the public deserves answers.”
Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) director Michael Zicardi said at a news conference on Monday that it was unknown how many animals were killed in the spill.
“I had serious concerns about this effect,” he said. However, preliminary assessments suggest that the number of birds was small, which was feared.
He said the OWCN has so far caught four birds, including a pelican, which had to be euthanized.
“As California continues to lead the nation in phasing out fossil fuels and tackling the climate crisis, this event serves as a reminder of the huge cost fossil fuels are taking on our communities,” Newsom said Monday. “Destructive offshore drilling practices sacrifice our public health, the economy, and our environment.”
check the reasons
The reason for the leak is not yet known. Wilser said Monday that the company has isolated a specific location along the pipeline that may be responsible.
“We are still conducting an assessment to try and locate the source,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Eric Laughlin said at a news conference on Sunday. “It doesn’t look like any more fuel is leaking, but we’re still working on identifying it.”
Captain Orr said officials were investigating whether oil had leaked from the ship’s anchorage.
“These ships are anchored and awaiting entry into several San Pedro Bay port complexes – the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – and during transit it is possible that they will transit on a pipeline,” Ore said on Monday. ” said .
The agency told CNN that the Federal Bureau of Security and Environmental Enforcement was assisting with the Coast Guard-led response to the oil spill. A statement on Sunday said its role was to assist in “identifying the location and source of any spill and providing technical assistance to Unified Command in preventing spillage”.
CNN’s Joe Sutton, Susanna Cullinan, Eric Levenson, Amir Vera, Alta Spell, Stella Chan, Claudia Dominguez, Chris Isidore, Cheri Mossberg and Sonnet Swier contributed to this report.
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