California pipeline shut down after ‘worst case’ scenario oil spill – By David Douglas and Tim Stelloh (NBC News) / Oct 3 2021
Such a leak could cause “significant and substantial harm to the environment.”
A 2012 plan prepared by the operator of an offshore oil pipeline that may have dumped thousands of barrels of oil off Southern California described such a spill as a “worst case” scenario that could cause “substantial harm.”
The plan, produced by Beta Offshore and obtained by NBC News, said that a full cut in the pipeline three miles from shore could release roughly 3,000 barrels, or 126,000 gallons, of oil.
Such a leak could cause “significant and substantial harm to the environment” because “of its proximity to navigable waters and adjoining shoreline areas designated as environmentally sensitive.”
Officials said that roughly 126,000 gallons of oil appeared to have spilled off the coast of Orange County over the weekend, creating a 13-square-mile slick near the cities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Approximately 3,150 gallons of oil have been recovered from the water as divers were investigating a potential source of the leak roughly four miles from shore, the chief executive of Beta Offshore’s parent company, Amplify Energy, said.
