Operators of a Southern California oil pipeline that leaked 144,000 gallons of heavy crude into the Pacific Ocean didn’t shut it down for more than three hours after an alarm alerted them to the possible breach, federal regulators said.
A corrective action order issued by federal pipeline and hazardous materials regulators to a subsidiary of Amplify Energy Corp. on Monday includes a timeline that states the subsidiary, Beta Offshore, was alerted to a “low-pressure alarm” that indicated “a possible failure” at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
More than three hours later, the pipeline was shut down, and after another three hours, Beta Offshore reported the leak to the federal National Response Center, according to the timeline.
Amplify did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Oct. 4, 202102:36
The spill off the Orange County coast has resulted in oiled birds and a prohibition on fishing from the coastline to one mile offshore, from Huntington Beach to the San Diego County line.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the county as a result of the spill.
The corrective action order said the failure appears to have happened five miles offshore at a depth of nearly 100 feet.
The order coincides with investigators’ suspicion about the origins of the breach, that it might have been caused by “an anchor that hooked the pipeline.”
The aquatic region of San Pedro Bay is the site of a shipping traffic jam that has large vessels lined up, awaiting to offload goods at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
