Plains All American Pipeline convicted in 2015 California oil spill
Source: Reuters
ENVIRONMENT SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 / 7:50 PM / UPDATED 16 HOURS AGO
Plains All American Pipeline convicted in 2015 California oil spill
Steve Gorman, Gary McWilliams
4 MIN READ
(Reuters) - A California jury on Friday found the Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline company guilty on criminal charges of fouling state waters and harming wildlife in a major oil spill three years ago along the Pacific shoreline near Santa Barbara.
The verdict closed a chapter in the state’s bid to hold Plains All American criminally responsible for an oil spill that ranked as the largest in more than four decades to hit the energy-rich but ecologically sensitive coast northwest of Los Angeles.
The spill, linked to the deaths of hundreds of sea birds and marine mammals, occurred when an underground pipeline badly worn by corrosion ruptured along a coastal highway west of Santa Barbara on May 19, 2015, sending crude oil gushing onto the shore of Refugio State Beach and into the Pacific.
By the company’s own estimates, as much as 3,400 barrels of crude oil escaped into the environment at the edge of a national marine sanctuary and state-designated underwater preserve teeming with whales, dolphins, sea lions and marine birds.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-plains-all-amer-oilspill-court/plains-all-american-pipeline-convicted-in-2015-california-oil-spill-idUSKCN1LN2SN
