Dead birds and fish wash ashore as 126,000-gallon oil spill reaches Southern California coast
Officials warned of a potential ecological disaster after more than 120,000 gallons of oil leaked from an offshore rig and began washing up on beaches in South California as workers tried to contain the spill.
The leak was reported Saturday afternoon, with the U.S. Coast Guard stating that the slick was about three miles off Newport Beach, Calif., a popular beach destination in Orange County about 40 miles southeast of the Los Angeles International Airport. Huntington Beach officials said the spill amounted to 126,000 gallons and has been patched up but “not completely stopped.”
“The spill has significantly affected Huntington Beach, with substantial ecological impacts,” city officials said in a Sunday news release.
Katrina Foley, an Orange County supervisor, tweeted that the oil spilled from Platform Elly, operated by Beta Offshore, a Long Beach, Calif., unit of Houston’s Amplify Energy. She said that birds and fish had begun to wash ashore and that oil continued to spill from the rig. Huntington Beach officials said the slick measured an estimated 5.8 nautical miles, stretching from the Huntington Beach Pier to Newport Beach, they said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dead-birds-and-fish-wash-ashore-as-126000-gallon-oil-spill-reaches-southern-california-coast/ar-AAP5zz2
Major cleanup operation launched after oil slick detected off southern California
A major cleanup operation has been launched to tackle a 126,000-gallon oil slick off the southern California coast, which has forcedbeaches to close and prompted officials to warn of “substantial ecological impacts.”
The slick is approximately 13 square miles in size, the U.S. Coast Guard Los Angeles said in a tweet Saturday. It added that it was 3 miles off the coast of Newport Beach, a small community 35 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
In a separate statement it said that it was working with a number of agencies including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response on the cleanup operation.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a tweet Saturday thatoil had already washed up onto the beachfront of Huntington Beach in Orange County.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/major-cleanup-operation-launched-after-oil-slick-detected-off-southern-california/ar-AAP5TFv
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