A small army of cleanup workers on Friday toiled to scoop up crude oil deposits from a picturesque California beach, three days after a pipeline rupture unleashed thousands of liters of fuel into the ocean.
California’s scenic Refugio State Beach and its neighbor, El Capitan, would usually be swarming with tourists over the US Memorial Day holiday weekend, but were closed until further notice last week following the spill on Tuesday.
Plastic bags filled with blackened sand piled up and the stench of oil could be smelled from kilometers around. Workers had made significant progress on the beach, but rocks remained coated with oil.
Photo: Reuters
“The beaches are starting to look a lot better than they did a couple of days ago, but still it will be a long process,” US Coast Guard spokesman David Mosley said. “Something like that, it can take days or weeks to get back to pre-spill.”
About 300 cleanup workers have been mobilized and new teams were still arriving. Their ranks were boosted by many volunteers — who need equipment and to undergo a brief training session before they can get to work.
Cleanup operations also aim to pump slicked oil from the ocean. About 40,000 liters are estimated to have spilled. Only a portion of this made it to the sea, but was more than enough to form an oil slick about 14km long.
Workers were also cleaning the hill overlooking Refugio beach, the site of the rupture. The leak affected a pipeline operated by Plains All America Pipeline.
Plains senior director Patrick Hodgins said it could take months to find out what happened to the 60cm-wide pipeline, which dates back to 1987.
Plains came under fire on Friday when local media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times reported that it had 175 safety and maintenance infractions since 2006 — more than three times the US national average.
During a press conference in Santa Barbara, Hodgins said that of these incidents, 20 were of leaks of less than one barrel of oil and many more of less than five barrels.
The health impacts of the spill are still unknown, Mosley said.
People have varying levels of sensitivity to the smell, Mosley added, saying that some would experience skin irritation or headaches.
Authorities are monitoring closely how the spill will impact the area’s rich wildlife, which includes populations of sea lions, pelicans, dolphins and whales.
Until now, the only animals to have been rescued are five pelicans, a young sea lion, a dolphin and two other marine mammals.
Kyra Mills-Parker, deputy director of a network that rescues wild animals affected by oil spills, said the spill would have adverse effects on wildlife that would be hard to document.
Since the spill, lobsters, pelicans and other animals coated in oil have been found along beaches, she said.
Fishing is prohibited until further notice in the area, even though local authorities had not been immediately able to assess the spill’s potential impact on the food chain.
The cost to the local economy is also unknown. A spokeswoman from the Santa Barbara tourist office said there had not been any significant cancelations at area hotels.
In the heart of this upscale ocean town about 160km northwest of Los Angeles, vacationers said they were not intending to swim, but not because of the spill.
“The water is too cold for us,” a German student said.
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