Oil sheen spotted near Southern California's oil spill
This aerial photo taken with a drone, shows beachgoers as workers in protective suits continue to clean the contaminated beach in Huntington Beach, California on Oct 11, 2021. (Photo: AP/Ringo H W Chiu)
HUNTINGTON BEACH, California: Officials were investigating an oil sheen spotted on Saturday (Nov 20) near last month’s crude pipeline leak off Southern California's coast.
The US Coast Guard said in a statement the oil sheen is about 21m by 9m and that it has dispatched “pollution responders, aircraft and boats” to investigate.
The oil sheen is located in the same area where a massive oil spill was confirmed last month off the coast of Orange County, officials said.
The spill confirmed on Oct 2 from a ruptured underwater pipeline owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy leaked up to about 25,000 gallons (94,635 litres) of crude. Oil washed ashore, tarring the feathers of dozens of birds and leading to rescues of marine mammals, though it wasn’t as bad as environmentalists feared.
The impact of the spill was less than initially feared, but it affected local wetlands and wildlife and shut the shoreline in surf-loving Huntington Beach for a week.
