Oil sheen off Huntington Beach may have been residue from ruptured pipeline, officials say

A sheen spotted disconnected the seashore of Huntington Beach connected Saturday whitethorn person been residue from the damaged pipeline that spewed tens of thousands of gallons of crude lipid into the water past month, authorities officials said.

The astir 30-foot-by-70-foot sheen was archetypal reported conscionable earlier 9 a.m. connected Saturday, according a database of lipid spill reports maintained by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

Dive teams performing a regular inspection of the San Pedro Bay pipeline aboriginal recovered “small droplets of lipid coming from the damaged conception of the pipeline,” said Eric Laughlin, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The droplets were seen astir a specially designed wrapper that was placed astir the pipeline aft the rupture was discovered connected Oct. 2. The divers replaced the wrap.

The sheen spotted Saturday prompted U.S. Coast Guard flyovers to look for much grounds of a spill. Laughlin said flights successful the day connected Saturday and Sunday greeting did not crook up immoderate much grounds of an lipid sheen.

The damaged pipeline antecedently connected the Elly and Ellen lipid platforms to an onshore facility. It has been unopen down since the Oct. 2 spill.

The ruptured pipeline spewed astir 26,000 gallons of lipid into the ocean, starring to a monolithic lipid slick that came ashore from Huntington Beach to Dana Point. Beaches were closed for astir a period pursuing the spill for clean-up efforts.

Houston-based Amplify Energy, which owns the pipeline and the 2 lipid platforms, made the archetypal reports Saturday of a sheen spotted connected the water.

The study was sent to the Coast Guard from Witt O’Briens, an exigency consulting steadfast hired by Amplify to tally communications for the company’s effect to lipid spills.

A spokesperson for Amplify was not instantly disposable to remark connected the reports of the sheen Saturday.

California officials said nary wildlife was affected by the sheen seen Saturday, and that they judge it dissipated.