LOS ANGELES (AP) – A 10-square-mile oil slick off the California coast is thinner than a coat of paint and it’s becoming harder to skim from choppy waters, officials said as more dead animals were discovered.
The combination of sunlight and waves Friday helped evaporate and dissolve some of the oil that blackened beaches and covered wildlife in thick goo after a pipeline on shore leaked up to 105,000 gallons on the Santa Barbara coast Tuesday.
Federal regulators ordered Plains All American Pipeline to drain the pipe that leaked, test the metal in the damaged section of pipe, and complete a series of steps before it can ask to resume pumping oil through the pipe to inland refineries.
“Before restarting operations, we’re going to make sure they do things right,” said Linda Daugherty of the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Investigators with the agency are looking into the cause of the spill and whether there was something Plains should have known about conditions in the underground pipeline and factors that could have contributed to the accident.