A portion of the 4-mile-wide oil spill near Santa Barbara, CA
Campers at popular Refugio State Beach in California were alarmed by noxious fumes and notified authorities, who discovered a
105,000 gallon oil leak:
After flowing from the pipeline, crude pooled in a culvert before spilling into the Pacific, where it created a four-mile-long sheen extending about 50 yards into the water. Officials said winds could send the oil another four miles south toward Isla Vista.
The pipeline, built in 1991 and designed to carry about 150,000 barrels of oil per day, is owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, which said in a statement that it shut down the pipe. The culvert was also blocked to prevent more oil from flowing into the ocean, the company said.
Clean-up is underway, but no timeline has been announced. The state beach campground was at capacity for a busy holiday weekend, but all campers have been forced to pack up and leave.
This isn't the first oil spill in the area:
The Santa Barbara Channel was the site of a massive oil spill in 1969 that left the coast darkened with oil, killed thousands of birds and galvanized the environmental movement.
An effort to permanently ban off-shore oil drilling in state waters off Santa Barbara failed in the state Assembly last August.
See
video of the 4-mile-wide oil spill here.