Oil sheen gone from waters of Southern California’s Huntington Beach after 85

CNN
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The oil sheen spotted in the Southern California waters of Huntington Beach appeared to be gone Saturday as crews worked to clean up tar that washed ashore, officials said.

Officials conducting a helicopter flyover Saturday morning didn’t spot any oil sheen, the city of Huntington Beach said. The US Coast Guard said the sheen was first spotted Thursday and officials on Friday worked to recover roughly 85 gallons of oil product from the waters off the coast of Huntington Beach, which is known for its beaches and goes by the moniker Surf City USA.

The sheen was about 1/2 mile wide and approximately 2 and 1/2 miles long, the Coast Guard said in a news release. It was spotted about 1 and 1/2 half miles off the coast, the Coast Guard said.

The city said while the amount of “tar patties” found along the beach doesn’t currently warrant closing the area, teams have started cleaning up the area.

“We wish to remind everyone – do not touch/pick up tar patties, or dispose of them in beach trash receptacles. If you find an area of the beach containing a large amount of tar patties, please notify a lifeguard,” the city said in an advisory Saturday morning.

The city’s marine safety staff plan to continue monitoring the coastline, the advisory added.

On Friday, about 85% of the total oil sheen was removed “before the deteriorating sea state caused operations to pause for the evening,” the Coast Guard said.

“The oil spill off the coast in HB is contained, protections in place to protect our wetlands & marshes, & investigation & testing are still ongoing,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said on Friday. “Clean up underway.”

In the search for oiled wildlife, one grebe – an aquatic diving bird – with oil on it was recovered Friday afternoon, according to the Coast Guard.

The nearby cities of Newport Beach, Long Beach and Laguna Beach said in statements they would be monitoring any impacts to their shorelines from the oil.

The Coast Guard said the source of the oil sheen is under investigation.

“Early thoughts are that it’s from a platform,” Foley said about the possible source.

The incident comes a little more than 2 years after a massive spill of as much as 131,000 gallons of oil in the same vicinity prompted officials to close area beaches for about a week.

“At this time, we have no indication that this sheen is related to our operations,” said Amplify Energy, the owner of the oil pipeline involved in the 2021 spill, in a news release on Friday. “We will continue to cooperate with the U.S. Coast Guard and other relevant authorities and provide support in any way we can.”