Oil spill in California: the distressing images of this new ecological disaster – midi libre

It was one of the worst oil spills the state of California has seen in decades. Beaches between Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach have been closed to the public for 24 kilometers and fishing has been banned due to the oil spill which began on Saturday and has already killed many fish and birds, according to local authorities. This flow, estimated by the Municipality of Huntington Beach at nearly 480,000 liters, would be due to a leak on an oil pipeline about 10 km from the coast.

The US Coast Guard, which coordinates containment operations with floating booms deployed for nearly two kilometers, said Monday that only 3% of the oil could have been blocked. “Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil-covered fish and birds washing up on the coast,” the 200,000-resident Municipality of Huntington Beach said in a statement.

The beaches could remain closed “for weeks or even months,” warned Mayor Kim Carr, saying she fears a “potential ecological disaster” for the region. Many residents interviewed by local media complained about the strong smell of bitumen floating in the air.

The coast guards, which supervise the rescue operations, have mobilized many pollution control vessels. Some 12,000 liters of oil had been extracted from the water on Sunday evening and 1,600 m of floating booms deployed to contain the slick, they said.

Authorities and protectors of the environment were particularly concerned about the impact of the oil spill on the many ecological reserves located in foreshore and wetlands along the coast. The disaster has already revived the debate on the presence of oil platforms and pipelines near the coasts of southern California.

“Time bombs”

Some 23 oil and gas drilling rigs are located in federal waters off the California coast. This spill came from a platform called Elly, which was installed in 1980. Elly sits above a large oil reservoir, in waters supervised by the US Department of the Interior. Environmentalists have long warned that aging offshore oil installations pose a serious risk, one activist calling them “time bombs.”

New drilling permits haven’t been issued since the 1980s, but that almost changed under former President Trump. His administration has sought to open all federal waters off the coast of the United States to oil and gas exploration. The reaction of the States was swift. Trump has backed down and proposed to extend bans on offshore drilling in some federal waters.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein proposed a bill in January that would permanently ban the federal government from authorizing new leases to allow exploration, development or production of oil or natural gas off the coast of California, Oregon and Washington State, can we read in the Los Angeles Times.