Accelerated oil spill clean-up in California

Nearly 2,500 barrels of crude petroleum were spilled after a pipeline ruptured 30 kilometres west of Santa Barbara on Tuesday. The latest estimates recorded 397,500 litres of oil were leaked from the pipeline operated by crude oil transportation company Plains All American Pipeline, with nearly 80,000 litres spilling into the ocean. This has led to oil slicks in the water as long as 15 kilometres stretching across the coast.

At the time of the leak, the pipeline had a flow rate of 207,000 litres an hour. Plains halted operation of the pipeline 30 minutes after detecting irregularities in the flow of oil.

Governor Jerry Brown announced a state of emergency on Wednesday evening to speed up the mobilisation of cleaning crews and resources as well as to allow for emergency state funding. The clean-up of the spill has been ramped up to a 24-hour operation and has so far removed 30,000 litres of water from the ocean and 366 metres of sand that had been saturated.

“It’s a long process. These types of things continue on, perhaps for months, to make sure the environment is restored to its original condition,” said Coast Guard Captain Jennifer Williams, who is co-ordinating the on-site response to the spill.