Pipeline Owner Recovering Oil Slick

Oil slicks from an offshore spill crept closer to Orange County beaches Tuesday as workers recovered more than half of the 210 gallons that leaked into the ocean from a corroded pipeline.

The spill began Sunday after oil seeped out of a pipeline that was shut down in June after an earlier spill. The pipeline was being cleaned when residual oil seeped from seven pinhole-size leaks.

Officials with pipeline owner Aera Energy LLC of Bakersfield said they expect to prevent any oil from washing ashore, where it could harm wildlife and spoil beaches. “We do not expect that the oil sheen will reach the shore, but we do have response crews on the shore on standby,” company spokeswoman Susan Hersberger said.

The flow of oil from the leaks was significantly reduced Tuesday after the pipeline was flushed with water, she said. But when the leak will stop--and when the cleanup will be over--is unknown.

The spill occurred near a three-platform complex owned by Aera about 10 miles off Huntington Beach. The inactive pipeline, which connects platform Eureka with platforms Elly and Ellen, was being cleaned for use as a water line when the leaks occurred.

Late Monday night, the mile-long, 100-foot-wide sheen had separated into three streams that were drifting east.

By Tuesday afternoon, the closest stream was less than 4 miles off Huntington Beach, said Marty Kasuls, captain of the county Sheriff’s Department’s Harbor Patrol.

But before nightfall, the oil drifting to shore had been captured, and the remaining sheen was between the platforms, Hersberger said. Aera had 15 ships on site Tuesday, and kept five there overnight.

She added that the cleanup is almost finished, since about 50% of the spill has been clustered and skimmed from the ocean’s surface, 20% has evaporated and another 20% was dispersed by wave movement.

“We are making very, very good progress. We have virtually recovered all of the oil except for the remaining sheen, which is localized,” she said.

Federal officials, who are monitoring the situation, say they expected a small leak when they approved Aera’s plan to clean the line in anticipation of converting it to a water pipeline.

“We knew that there was not going to be too much oil [released] and they were ready to deal with it,” said Rishi Tyagi, a district supervisor with the U.S. Minerals Management Service. “I don’t think it’s that serious, but we will be looking at it and seeing they take appropriate actions in responding.”

No damage to birds or sea life has been reported, he added.

The pipeline had carried oil until it was closed after a June leak. Initial reports indicated that about 42 gallons of oil had seeped from the pipeline, but that estimate later increased to 420 gallons. Samples taken from the early June leak matched gooey tar balls that washed up on Orange County beaches a week later.

Minerals Management Service recommended that Aera pay civil fines for that incident because a leak detection system failed, Tyagi said. He doubts that any such action will come from the current leak, but added that an investigation is underway.

“We don’t want to jump to conclusions or rush to judgment,” Tyagi said.