May 20, 2015
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GOO -- Update
May 27 Update
This afternoon it was announced that all beaches between Manhattan Beach (just south of Los Angeles Airport) and Torrance (about 10 miles south of LAX) are closed due to blobs of oil washing ashore on the beaches. This is another beautiful stretch of beach, easily accessible to the public of Los Angeles, and about 100 miles south of Santa Barbara. They have eliminated natural seepage as the cause of these oil blobs, but have not identified the source of the oil. This just adds insult to injury!
Meantime, last week's spill is being cleaned up. There have been many animals affected by that spill -- dolphins, seals, pelicans, smaller birds (the snowy plover nests along the affected beaches, and are protected by Federal law), kelp bass and the kelp itself. Some of the less affected animals are being treated on the spot, others are being taken to Sea World in San Diego, where trainers are working to save lives. The oil is being skimmed off the surface of the water where possible, and oily sand from the beaches -- that is being reclaimed by the pipeline company. There are about 1,000 people working on this cleanup! There is concern that oily animals will appear anywhere along the beaches to the south of Santa Barbara, although that has not yet happened, and that eventually the oil itself could also reach beaches all the way south to Santa Barbara. Today, they finally reached the section of the pipeline that broke; it has not been announced what they found when they finally saw it. It is quite clear, though, that the Pipeline company will be held liable for ALL the costs of the cleanup.
Although I am not an activist, I repeat the cry to Get Oil Out!
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As I grew up in Santa Barbara in the 1940-s and 1950's, it was wonderful on a sunny day to spend time at the beach. A trip to the beach was always cause for an oil inspection as soon as we arrived at home, and before we were allowed to go indoors. There was a can of Energine by the back door, which we would use to dissolve any patches of tar that might have adhere to the bottoms of our feet. The tar was always present, in small globules in the sand. It was the result of natural seepage from offshore oil. In the 1960's, oil companies expanded their exploration for new oil sources, and found that there was a lot of oil in the channel between the Santa Barbara County coastline and the Channel Islands about 25 miles offshore. They began to drill, and to extract that oil from offshore rigs. In early 1969, one of the first rigs experienced a "blowout," in which oil flew freely into the ocean and onto the shore along Santa Barbara. This was the first offshore disaster, and it took many months to clean up all the oil that had landed on the beaches. The beaches were polluted for miles along the shore, and the Santa Barbara Harbor was covered with an oil slick that needed clean-up. Many people volunteered to help -- an entire cottage industry developed to help with the cleanup. And a political group sprang up, calling itself "Get Oil Out," or "GOO." A large part of any environmental discussion in the City of Santa Barbara, as well as in the County, stems back to this organization.
Yesterday, around noon, people began to smell the odor of running oil. This time, a pipeline broke onshore -- the oil flowed into a culvert, under the freeway, and into the ocean, along a beautiful stretch of the Coast, in an area where there are two pristine State Parks, Refugio State Beach Park (that's pronounced re-foo-he-oh -- the 'g' is almost silent), and El Capitan Beach State Park. Refugio is about 20 miles north of Santa Barbara, and El Capitan is 5 miles or so closer to town. There are currently conflicting reports -- the Coast Guard tells us that approximately 21,000 gallons of oil spilled, while other agencies are saying they don't know how much oil there was. The owner of the pipeline, a company in Texas, turned off the flow as quickly as they could, and blocked the culvert so that no more oil would flow to the sea. However, the damage had been done. This morning in a Coast Guard flyover, it was discovered that there are two slicks -- one is about 4 miles long and spreads along the coastline -- it has moved a couple of miles down the coast since yesterday, and is still in pristine coastline. The second slick appears to the northwest, and is a little out to sea.
Cleanup has begun in earnest. Refugio State Park is closed; El Capitan State Park is closed for day use, although camping is being allowed. Both of these are among the most popular places for Memorial Day Camping, but Refugio will be unavailable this weekend. Oil company officials are spreading a boom to contain the slicks. They also have crews shoveling sand and rocks into buckets in order to remove oil from the beach. Wildlife officials are working hard to protect animals -- two whales were seen near the slick yesterday, as well as an oil-soaked bird, but they are saying that so far no animals have died. Hopefully they will be able to clean the beaches and contain the slicks quickly enough that animals are not impacted, but it is a major disaster to see this section of the shoreline covered with oil.
Get Oil Out!
Comments (31)
That is so sad. I remember when we used to come home from the beach, always sandy, and once in awhile with tar.
They have made progress in the cleanup, but it will be a long time before things return to normal in this pristine area!
What else? First the drought, now an oil spill? I am deeply saddened to hear about this accident. I hope none of the marine life and the birds succumb to this oil spill.
Zakiah -- this one makes me angry -- don't we learn from our mistakes?! And this one happened on land rather than in the water -- it should never have spilled into the sea! There have already been photos of birds covered in oil -- and the bottom critters have no chance. I do hope that the fishes and whales are not seriously impacted! At least the pipeline company is taking responsibility and participating fully in the cleanup! The impact has grown -- both State Parks are now closed at least for the next week, and there are warnings about protecting oneself against the oil, including a ban on eating fish caught within an extended area! It's terrible!!!
Yikes! I hope the clean up is completed before a major environmental disaster occurs! And does the oil company have a cleanup fund to help with the cleanup costs!!!
The disaster occurred the minute the oil reached the sea, Val! The spill now has been estimated at 105,000 gallons! Birds have already been covered in oil, and the bottom critters don't have a chance. I hope that pelagic animals don't stumble into the spill accidentally. The spill has expanded, and now both State Parks are closed for at least a week. It will take months to clean this up!
As to your other question, the pipeline company (Plains All-American Pipeline Co.) is responding as you would hope they would -- they took responsibility right away, and turned off the oil flow, they put booms out yesterday, they have a team of people working on the cleanup, they say the pipeline was inspected from inside a week ago (no results of that yet, so it could have shown that there would be a problem), and so forth. They seem to be genuinely sorry about the accident, though it will definitely cost them dearly!
I heard about the oil. I remember having oil spilled into our river in Ohio. It left a nice coat of oil on my garden.
It came from a refinery in Lima, OH, when it flooded years ago. There is some natural oil seepage in the ocean. We get it on our shoes in Texas. I think if it gets diluted enough birds and such won't be too badly damaged. Hope it wasn't done on purpose.
Unfortunately, dilution just makes it harder to clean up! The wave action, even on a quiet, calm day, breaks the slick into little blobs, each of which ends up attaching to kelp (seaweed) or animals or sand. The cleanup process right now is with shovels and buckets -- shovel a bucketful of oily sand into a bucket and go back for another. When they get a patch cleaned up, the next wave brings in more oil to mix with more sand! As of this afternoon, they have collected only 7,000 gallons of oil that way! I hope it wasn't done deliberately, although you are not the first to voice that thought.
@slmret: I saw it all on the news this morning. It makes me ill. They want to run a pipeline across the midwest from Canada and if something breaks it could contaminate the aquifer and that would be catastrophic. I think we have to get over the dependence on fossil fuels. I love that CA has a huge solar farm....
It's horrible -- it just makes me want to cry! A pipeline break could be devastating in the Midwest -- and our water is scarce enough. This could put a damper on the Santa Barbara desal plant if it moves another 10 miles down the coast! I agree about getting over fossil fuels -- CA is working hard on that, with a huge solar farm on the border of Nevada, just outside Las Vegas, and with several huge wind farms (one of which generates more than enough power for Palm Springs and sells some back to the grid!). There's apparently a lot of wildlife damage -- they're keeping the media away "because it will stress out the animals to take pictures of them." I've seen photos of flocks of pelicans, an octopus, a large crab, and several birds -- the only whale/dolphin/seal photos have been of clean animals, but there is at least one seal that's at Sea World in San Diego after being rescued. It's horrible!
It was in our news here too ~ so sorry!
It's very sad to see such beautiful pristine shoreline spoiled! It will take weeks to clean up to an acceptable level, and years (or decades) for the shoreline to heal.
@slmret: How horrible! I hope everything gets cleaned out quickly and totally. I can understand your chagrin at this nuisance.
They'll get most of the oil out of the water within a few weeks. The oil that landed on the beaches or rocks will take longer, unless they steam it off (which is what they did in 1969!). The animals will either die or be rescued and washed off with detergent -- most of the bottom critters won't make it, and the kelp forest will be badly damaged. It could take decades for the sea to heal itself after a disaster like this!
My heart sank, after hearing the news yesterday. Our Refugio won't be the same, for months, and possibly years, to come. By all means, Get Oil Out!
There is oil on the beaches for about 10 miles down the coast now, Gary, and oily animals are showing up many miles down the shoreline. There is concern now that the animals may carry the oil as far as Santa Monica Bay! The cleanup is ongoing, and we see daily updates of the number of gallons of oil that have been retrieved -- but there will now always be oil in the sand and on the rocks of Refugio and El Capitan! It is very distressing that there was no automatic shutoff on the pipeline because Plains sued the county for a waiver of the requirement! G-O-O !!!
I have been hearing about that in the news. So sad for that part of earth's waters.
It is terribly sad. Unknown is how much of the ocean will be affected over time -- way more than the 9 square miles of surface sheen, and way more than the few animals that have been rescued or those that died because of the oil. It's frustrating that it happened at all -- it was so preventable!
In France we call this " black tide " . It is a disaster for the ocean life and for the coast .
I am sorry. Love
Michel
Thank you, Michel! It is a major disaster for one of the most beautiful parts of the coast! Unfortunately, for our "black gold," we get "black tide" in return!
I see your comments on WordPress with the profile picture above . But when I go on your worpress site :nothing!! How do you this ?
Sorry to ask
Michel
Some time ago, I set up a regular WordPress account in case Xanga disappeared. I never activated it, other than adding my profile picture. However, when a blogger whom I follow posts, I receive an email. I can then read the post on my email, or scroll to the bottom and click on "Comments," which takes me to the website, where I post my comments. I am prompted to sign in to my WP account, and my comment posts.
Heart wrenching...
Certainly off topic, but I wanted to let you know that, now that we're in our own place and I'm exerting a positive and most tender effort to create a living space that reflects my heart, the matte frame image you sent to me some time ago rests proudly on a bookcase of mine. It is a prized possession, and I greatly thank you.
Thank you so much -- I did comment on your post last night that I'm delighted you're finding that photo so soothing -- and displaying it in your new home! It sounds as if you've found a much happier living situation -- I hope you still have a chance to see the little ones to show them by example that people are inherently good!
Just read the update. What a crying shame that so many birds and marine life are affected by this oil spill. I am glad that the San Diego Zoo is taking care of these animals.
It just keeps getting worse. They have now found oil on the beaches in Ventura, about halfway between Santa Barbara and LAX. Out of an abundance of caution, they have closed almost all the beaches in Ventura. They are sending samples of all the oil to a lab to determine if they come from the same source, or if the new ones could be natural seepage or some other spill (shipping, drilling, boating, etc). Meantime, they have extended the closures north of Santa Barbara until at least the 19th of June. It's probably worse than we know -- and it's absolutely appalling!
@slmret: We do our best. We intend to take them once school is out and the water warms up. I've bought a bunch of sandcastle supplies---buckets, little shovels and things---as well as some flotation fun stuff so we call all enjoy the lake.
Did I mention I live beside a lake now? Squee!
I digress. We see them as often as possible.
As for the update---absolutely upsetting. My heart aches that his is happening.
I'm delighted that you still see the children -- they will really enjoy the lake in the summer! Yes -- it's very upsetting that oil has been spilled again -- I just posted an update, along with some harbor photos.
When I was out in Vancouver in April there was also N oil spill on a major beach in the city and who responded the best on the clean up....the local aquarium!
Unfortunately Santa Barbara has only a tiny aquarium. But wildlife groups from Sea World to a sea lion rescue group in Laguna Beach, to others up and down the coast worked with the 150+ mammals and many birds that were affected.
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