Residents, business owners and environmentalists questioned Monday whether authorities reacted quickly enough to contain one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by an alleged leak in an underwater pipeline that contaminated the sands of the famous Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches closed for weeks or months.
Booms were deployed on the ocean surface Sunday to try to contain the oil as divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, they are hastily searching for animals affected by oil and trying to stop the spill from damaging more sensitive wetlands.
People in the area said they noticed an oil sheen and a strong smell of petroleum since Friday.
But it wasn’t until Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard said an oil slick had been detected and a unified command was established to respond. On Saturday night the company that operates the pipeline, apparently responsible for the leak, closed operations.
Rick Torgerson, owner of Blue Star Yacht Charter, said Friday night that “people were emailing and neighbors were asking, ‘Do you smell that?’ By Saturday morning, the ships were returning to the marina with their hulls covered in oil, he said.
Garry Brown, president of the environmental group Orange County Coastkeeper, denounced the initial lack of coordination between the Coast Guard and local officials to stem the oil slick.
“By the time it gets to the beach, it has done tremendous damage,” said Brown, who lives in Huntington Beach.
An estimated 572,807 liters (126,000 gallons) of heavy crude leaked into the water, with some reaching the shores of Orange County. The beaches in Huntington Beach were closed, and on Sunday night the city of Laguna Beach, just to the south, advised that its beaches were also closed.
Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said beaches in the community nicknamed “Surf City” could be closed for weeks or even months. The oil created a kilometer-wide glow in the ocean and washed ashore as sticky black globules.
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Felicia Fonseca in Phoenix and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report.
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