Large oil spill off the coast of Southern California threatens coasts from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach

The Coast Guard said on Sunday that the leak covered about 13 square miles. Captain Rebecca Ore said Monday that the oil stretched from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach and is likely to move south based on wind and currents.

“I would mark the oil with individual ribbons or patches of oil. It covers many miles, and it’s constantly changing,” she said. “It’s not a big oil covering this large area of ​​miles.”

“Fourteen boats carried out an oil recovery operation on Sunday afternoon,” the Coast Guard said. “Four aircraft were sent for an overflight assessment. Shoreside response was carried out by 105 government agency personnel.”

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told CNN on Monday that the spill had already caused significant damage.

“It has devastated our California coast in Orange County, and it is having a tremendous impact on our ecological preservation as well as our economics,” she said. “We need answers and the public deserves answers.”

The day before, dead birds and fish were washing up on the shore, Foley said.

Human and wildlife at risk

“Even when an oil shine is not visible, there may still be scattered and dissolved oil contaminants present in the water,” County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chow said.

Sections of the shoreline at Huntington Beach were closed on Saturday, with Mayor Kim Carr describing the spill as a “potential ecological disaster” on Sunday.

“In a year that has been fraught with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill is one of the most devastating situations our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.”

Field teams in the area of ​​the spill have found four birds injured by oil, a number said Monday was not as bad as had been predicted, an official said.

“In our initial assessment of the area, the number of birds in the general area seems to be lower than we expected,” said Dr. Michael Zicardi said. Network. “At this point, we are cautiously optimistic about the number of animals that will be affected.”

The reason for the leak under investigation

The company was working with local, state and federal agencies on recovery efforts, Wilser said Sunday afternoon.

“Our employees live and work in these communities, and we are all deeply affected and concerned about the impact not only on the environment, but on fish and wildlife as well,” he said. “We will do everything in our power to make sure this is fixed as soon as possible, and we will not do so until this conclusion is reached.”

The company notified the Coast Guard on Saturday morning when workers were conducting line inspections and noticed a glow in the water, Wilser said.

He said the facilities operating the pipeline were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s and are inspected every other year, including during pandemics.

The pipeline is “suctioned at both ends to keep excess crude out,” Wilsher said, adding that he does not expect any more oil to be released.

“We are still conducting an assessment to try and locate the source,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesman Eric Laughlin said at a news conference on Sunday. “It doesn’t look like there’s any further fuel leaking, but we’re still working on identifying it.”

The agency told CNN that the Federal Bureau of Security and Environmental Enforcement was assisting with the Coast Guard-led response to the oil spill. Its role was to assist in “identifying the location and source of any spill and providing technical assistance to the Unified Command in preventing spillage”, it said in a statement on Sunday.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Eric Laughlin’s last name.