The pipeline thought to be the source of the spill has been shut down, according to the head of the company who runs it, while divers on scene proceed to search for the exact cause of the spill, considered to be one of the largest in recent Southern California history.
The origin of the leak was a break of the rig Elly, only roughly 5 miles off of the coast of Huntington Beach, according to officials.
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“I don’t expect it to be more. That’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher announced at a Sunday news conference. He explained that dozens of nearby Amplify platforms had further been closed.
Crews of skimmers led by the United States Coast Guard worked to install floating barriers called booms to stop the miles-wide sheen, first observed by boaters on Saturday, from entering wetlands and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, according to officials.
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Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr announced that “Surf City USA’s” six miles of famous beaches could stay closed for weeks or even months as the city cleans up the sticky, tar-like globs from the sand.
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“This oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr stated.
The spill further forced the cancelation of the closing day of the annual Pacific Air Show that typically attracts thousands to Huntington Beach, a city of roughly 199,000 residents approximately 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Swaths of dead wildlife, mainly fish and birds, have washed ashore with the crude oil. Environmentalists believe it will only get worse as it pushes inland, poisoning fragile wetland environments.
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“We already have reports of dolphins being seen swimming through the oil slick. They can’t get away from it quickly. And now it has reached land,” Heal the Bay CEO Dr. Shelley Luce told KTLA. “This is a toxic spill. And many, many animals are going to die. And many more than we can count, because they will occur at sea.”
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“We’ve been working with our federal, state and county partners to mitigate the impact that could be a potential ecological disaster,” Mayor Carr announced Saturday.
Many endangered and threatened species live in the area — including a plump shorebird called the snowy plover, the California least tern and humpback whales, as well as a fishing industry and migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway.
Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s oceans program, told AP that oil spills like this can have long-term impacts on wildlife.
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