Oil Spill Volume in Huntington Beach May Have Been Much Less Than Anticipated: Officials

Oil Spill Volume in Huntington Beach May Have Been Much Less Than Anticipated: Officials
Clean-up efforts are underway for an oil spill off the coastline of Orange County in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 4, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
City News Service
10/7/2021
Updated:
10/7/2021

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—Officials were speculating that the volume of oil leaked off the coast of Huntington Beach might be much less than initially anticipated.

Authorities earlier this week were bracing for a worst-case scenario of about 144,000 gallons of oil, but on Oct. 7, it appeared it could be as low as 30,000 gallons.

“There’s speculation of about 30,000 gallons, but that’s not been confirmed,” Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said. “But that would make more sense,” adding that the amount of wildlife so far affected by the spill doesn’t reflect a larger spill.

At a news conference Oct. 7, a U.S. Coast Guard official estimated that roughly 588 barrels of oil had spilled, which would equate to about 24,700 gallons.

Capt. Rebecca Ore updates the media on the oil spill impacting Orange County beaches in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 6, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Capt. Rebecca Ore updates the media on the oil spill impacting Orange County beaches in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Oct. 6, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

The county on Oct. 7 reopened the beaches under its jurisdiction in Dana Point, which includes Salt Creek Beach, Strands Beach, and Baby Beach within Dana Point Harbor. Capistrano Beach and Poche Beach remain closed because of construction.

Beachgoers were advised to avoid any visible oil on beaches and harbors in Dana Point and Newport Beach, which remain closed for traffic both in and out.

Meanwhile, congressional leaders were pressing the federal agencies investigating the leak for regulatory information on Amplify Energy, the company that owns the oil rig.

Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher insisted the company was unaware of any release of oil into the ocean until about 8 a.m. on Oct. 2, adding that the firm responded and reported the incident immediately.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s Office of Pipeline Safety issued a corrective action order on Oct. 5, saying workers in the company’s control room “received a low-pressure alarm on the San Pedro Bay Pipeline, indicating a possible failure at about 2:30 a.m.” on Oct. 2, but the pipeline carrying crude oil wasn’t shut down until about 6 a.m.

Asked repeatedly about that timeline during an Oct. 6 media briefing in Huntington Beach, Willsher simply said the company was cooperating fully with federal and local investigators.

“We are working with them, giving them all the transparency and information that we have,” he said.

As for whether there was an alarm that alerted crews to a pressure drop, he said, “We are conducting a full investigation of that ... to see if there was anything that should have been noticed.

“I’m not sure if there was a significant loss of pressure,” Willsher said, adding that when his company’s crews saw oil in the water at 8:09 a.m., an emergency response was initiated.

“We did not take any additional time,” he said. “People were notified very, very quickly.”

Willsher said his company was also unaware of any reports of a sighting of oil in the water as early as 6 p.m. Oct. 1.

“If we were aware of something Friday night, I promise you we would have immediately stopped all operations and moved forward,” he said.

Meanwhile, cleanup and containment efforts were continuing along the Orange County coast. So far, about 5,000 gallons of oil have been scooped out of the water, in addition to the tarballs and patties on the beach, said Capt. Rebecca Ore of the Coast Guard.

Michael Ziccardi of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network said 13 live oiled birds and two dead birds had been collected by rescue teams.

Divers contracted to investigate the source of the leak confirmed that a large section of the 17.7-mile pipeline was moved out of place by as much as 105 feet, and a 13-inch “split” in the line was detected in the displaced section 4 1/2 miles offshore.

According to the unified command responding to the leak—including the Coast Guard, state Department of Fish & Wildlife, and Amplify Energy—a 4,000-foot section of the pipeline was “displaced,” or bent laterally by a maximum of 105 feet.

Ore said on Oct 5 that the split is the “likely source” of the leak, which could have spilled as much as 144,000 gallons into the ocean, forcing the closure of Orange County beaches and some harbors. She said no more oil was seen coming out of the break in the line.

Willsher said on Oct. 5 that the split in the line occurred at the point where the pipeline was most severely displaced. He said the pipeline is a 16-inch steel pipe covered in concrete, indicating it would take a great deal of force to move and rupture it. He said the “pipeline has been pulled like a bowstring,” and “is in almost a semi-circle.”

He confirmed on Oct. 4 that the possibility of a ship’s anchor causing the break was among the options being examined as a potential cause. That possibility gained credence in the federal corrective action order issued to the company’s subsidiary, Beta Offshore, on Oct. 5.

“The root cause of the accident remains unconfirmed at this time,” according to the federal document. “Preliminary reports indicate that the failure may have been caused by an anchor that hooked the pipeline, causing a partial tear.”

The Los Angeles Times reported on Oct. 6 that Coast Guard investigators boarded the Rotterdam Express container ship in Oakland, which had been in the waters off Huntington Beach at roughly the time the oil leak is believed to have started.

A spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, the German company that owns the ship, told the paper the ship had been anchored in the vicinity of the spill but was “pretty far away from the pipeline.”

The federal report states that the damaged pipe is about 98 feet below the ocean surface. The pipeline was installed in 1980. Orange County’s Emergency Management Director Michelle Anderson told supervisors on Oct. 5 that spill estimates ranged between 120,000 to 150,000 gallons of oil. The plume had drifted as far south as Dana Point, shutting down harbors from Newport to Dana Point.

Ore said oil will continue flowing south with the current.

An estimated 15.67 miles of light oiling was reported along Orange County shorelines, according to the unified command.

Beaches throughout Orange County remained mostly closed as efforts continued to scoop up tar and oil stemming from the spill.

Newport Beach offered some access, with visitors welcome to go on the sand, but not in the water. Vessels within Newport Harbor could continue operating in the harbor, but boats weren’t allowed in or out, to keep them from spreading oil, city spokesman John Pope said.

The damage in Newport Beach is mainly concentrated on the west side from the Santa Ana River down to 52nd Street, Pope said. Some tar and oil has been seen further down the peninsula, but was not as slick, and there’s been some tar showing up in Corona Del Mar, he said.

Seal Beach’s beaches remain open because officials say the oil slick hasn’t affected their shores.

Officials have established a phone line for claims from residents or businesses affected by the spill. Anyone with a claim was asked to call 866-985-8366 and use “Pipeline P00547” as a reference.

Residents were asked refrain from trying to rescue any oiled animals, but to instead report injured wildlife by calling 877-823-6926, or 877-UCD-OWCN. Interested volunteers must take a four-hour course to train for clean-up efforts and wear special personal protective equipment.

Anyone interested can get more details at CalSpillWatch.wildlife.ca.gov/volunteer or by calling 800-228-4544.

While the spill was not reported until 9 a.m. Saturday, some people reported smelling oil in the water late Friday. Members of the unified command confirmed that the National Response Center received a report of an unknown sheen on the water Friday night, but such reports are common and often turn out to be unfounded. State teams responded to the area to investigate the report before sunrise on Saturday, but were unable to properly investigate due to foggy conditions. The Coast Guard and Orange County sheriff’s officials deployed after daybreak.

Ore said when a call of an oil slick came in Friday night, the Coast Guard followed a standard protocol with a phone call to the reporting party.

She said it was too dark to determine whether it was an oil slick, so the Coast Guard followed up at dawn.

“It took about two hours on Saturday morning to detect oil in the water,” Ore said.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife ordered the closure of Southern California fisheries in response to the spill, prohibiting the taking of fish and shellfish from Huntington Beach to Dana Point.

The spill occurred in federal waters at the Elly oil-rig platform, built to process crude oil from two other platforms, which draw from a large reservoir called Beta Field. Elly is one of three platforms operated by Beta Operating Co., which also operates Ellen and Eureka nearby. Elly processes oil production from Ellen and Eureka and is fed by some 70 oil wells. The processing platform separates oil from water.