Tuesday, October 5, 2021

California oil spill kills wildlife, fouls beaches


CityNews on Youtube shows that a major oil spill is threatening wildlife off Southern California. Melissa Duggan on the quick race to clean up the moving slick.

An anchor hooking an oil pipeline may have caused the Southern California spill that spewed more than 100,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. This is according to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

This disaster happened to the "Amplify Energy" operator. "The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bow string. And so at its widest point is about 105 feet away from where it was. So it is kind of an almost a semicircle," Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said at a press conference Tuesday.

Earlier Tuesday, authorities said a 4,000-foot section of the pipeline was displaced laterally about 105 feet and had a 13-inch split that was likely the source of the spill.

The discovery explains the likely source of a spill, widely reported Saturday, of as much as 144,000 gallons of crude oil about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach. The spill has shut down many beaches and damaged the environment.

The Unified Command said the National Response Center first received a report of an unknown sheen of unknown source on Friday evening.

A so-called "oil spill" is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially the marine ecosystem, due to human activity, and is certainly a form of pollution. The term is usually given to marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters, but spills may also occur on land. Oil spills may be due to releases of crude oil from tankers, offshore platforms, drilling rigs and wells, as well as spills of refined petroleum products (such as gasoline, diesel) and their by-products, heavier fuels used by large ships such as bunker fuel, or really the spill of any oily refuse or waste oil.

Oil spills could get into the plumage of birds and the fur of mammals, reducing its insulating ability, and making them more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations and much less buoyant in the water.

Cleanup and recovery from an oil spill is difficult and depends upon many factors, including the certain type of oil spilled, the temperature of the water (affecting evaporation and biodegradation), and the types of shorelines and types of beaches involved.

Oil spills can have disastrous consequences for society. Oil spill accidents have initiated intense media attention and political uproar, bringing many together in a political struggle concerning government response to oil spills and what actions can best prevent them from again happening.

"Oil" is a very frequently used product. Many people search about an "oil change near me." Oil price depends on frequency of oil spills. Certain oil prices will change based on oil spills that happen.

These are the big oil companies in the world:

BP
Chevron
Eni
ExxonMobil
Royal Dutch Shell
TotalEnergies
ConocoPhillips

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