A large oil rig breach in California is causing devastation to wetlands and the coastline stretching from Huntington Beach down to Newport Beach in the United States.
The US Coast Guard said a ’round-the-clock investigation’ into how the spill occurred was launched and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife ordered closure in areas affected by the incident that happened Saturday, 2 October, reported Reuters.
An estimated 3,000 barrels had leaked and spilled crude oil into a massive 33 square kilometres of the Pacific Ocean, said Kim Carr, mayor of Huntington Beach. ‘Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are now covered in oil,’ and called the spill an ‘environmental catastrophe,’ Carr added.
The pipeline belongs to Amplify Energy, and according to CNN its president and CEO Martyn Willsher said: ‘Our employees live and work in these communities, and we’re all deeply impacted and concerned about the impact on not just the environment, but the fish and wildlife as well. We will do everything in our power to ensure that this is recovered as quickly as possible, and we won’t be done until this is concluded.’
Several fish and birds have been found dead, but official statistics around the impact on wildlife have not been confirmed yet.
Picture: Wikimedia commons/Not related
ALSO READ
