Photo: Joshua Shelly
To nobody’s surprise, Californians are still seeing the effects of May’s Refugio Oil Spill. A week after more than 100,000 gallons of oil spilled into the ocean in Santa Barbara County, beaches in the small Los Angeles suburbs of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach were closed down when an oil slick washed ashore. While “tar balls” are common in the Manhattan Beach area, similar tar balls were found in Long Beach, and almost as far south as the San Diego/Orange County boarders.
More than 50 samples of tar found in the water and on shore were collected throughout California beaches. While all of the tests on those samples haven’t been completed yet, at least the tar found in Manhattan Beach indicated a mix of oil from the Plains spill and natural seepage. Chemicals in at least two of the samples taken from the Southwest Los Angeles town were consistent with oil spilled on May 19, 100 miles to the north, according to both the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as well as Plains All American Pipeline.
Patrick Sullivan of the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity said the results “suggest that the damage from the oil spill extends quite a bit farther than anyone would have guessed.”
The pipeline break that took place in Santa Barbara is said to have left an oil slick that stretched more than 9 miles west of Refugio State Beach.
