A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter will conduct an overflight at first light Saturday to assess whether there is any sheen or oil product in the water after a roughly 2.5-mile-long oil sheen was spotted in the ocean water off the coast of Huntington Beach.
The Unified Command has also authorized an onshore recovery team to conduct shoreline assessments and cleanup.
Approximately 85% of the sheen, roughly 85 gallons of product, was recovered before the deteriorating sea state caused operations to pause for the evening, the Unified Command announced at 8:19 p.m. Friday.
The Oiled Wildlife Care Network has been activated, and crews are investigating reports of oiled wildlife. As of 2 p.m. Friday, one oiled grebe has been recovered, according to the Coast Guard.
Anyone observing oiled wildlife should not attempt to capture it. Instead, observations of oiled wildlife should be reported to the oiled wildlife hotline at 1-877-UCD-OWCN.
The unified command consists of the U.S. Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
The Coast Guard’s Sector Los Angeles-Long Beach Command Center said it received a report at 6:50 p.m. Thursday of an unknown substance in the water 1.5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach.
Coast Guard Pollution Responders got underway at 6:30 a.m. Friday with a Newport Harbor Patrol boat to investigate. A Coast Guard helicopter also conducted an overflight in the area at sunrise. Upon investigation, an oil sheen was discovered that spanned 2.5 miles in length and a half-mile in width, roughly 2.8 miles off Huntington Beach near platforms Emmy and Eva, according to the Coast Guard.
“The Coast Guard is contacting all potential spill sources in the area, but no source has been identified,” according to a USCG statement early Friday afternoon. “Additionally, the Coast Guard has hired an oil spill response organization to conduct offshore oil collection and is working to identify possible impacts to the shoreline and environmental protection strategies.
Some tar balls were spotted on the sand in Huntington Beach, but it was unclear if the two events were related.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley visited Dog Beach in Huntington Beach and got some of the tar on her shoes, but she said the problem appears to be contained.
“It’s contained is what I understand, but they’re still investigating and the good news is we have all the resources out there,” Foley said. “And they’ll get it cleaned up quickly.”
Foley said regular Dog Beach visitors reported the tar balls were worse than usual.
An oil spill in the same general area in 2021 has led to reforms that appear to have improved the response, Foley said.
“We have a better system in place now,” Foley said. “Everybody is all coordinated now — better than they were before so they got a quick response out there.”
Brady Bradshaw of the oceans program at the Center for Biological Diversity called discovery of the sheen “grim,” adding, “We have to do a lot more than just try to mop up the miles-long mess.”
“This same tangle of pipelines and platforms produced the massive 2021 spill, and it’s time for state and federal regulators to take tough, urgent action to get this decrepit infrastructure out of the ocean,” Bradshaw said in a statement. “California’s wildlife and coastal communities have suffered too much for too long and there’s no more room for excuses.”
The 2021 spill dumped about 25,000 gallons of oil into the ocean, forcing cancellation of the final day of that year’s Pacific Airshow. The oil spilled from an underwater pipeline that carries crude from several offshore drilling platforms to a processing plant in Long Beach. Investigators ultimately determined the pipeline was damaged by the dragging of a cargo ship’s anchor.
That spill led to multiple lawsuits, millions of dollars in settlements and fines against pipeline owner Amplify Energy Corp.
Newport Beach officials issued a statement Friday saying they are “actively monitoring” the oil, but do not believe it poses a threat to the city.