The leak appears to have stopped and oil removal efforts are underway, officials said Sunday.
The breach, reported Saturday, occurred about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach in Orange County, spilling the equivalent of an estimated 3,000 barrels — or 126,000 gallons — of post-production crude, local officials said.
Divers have been inspecting the 17-mile pipeline, hoping to find its exact source. The leak’s cause remains unknown.
“Fourteen boats conducted oil recovery operations Sunday afternoon,” the Coast Guard said. “Four aircraft were dispatched for overflight assessments. Shoreside response was conducted by 105 government agency personnel.”
Already, dead birds and fish were washing up on the shore, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Sunday.
Sections of the shoreline at Huntington Beach were closed on Saturday, with Mayor Kim Carr on Sunday describing the spill as a “potential ecological disaster.”
“In a year that has been filled with incredibly challenging issues, this oil spill constitutes one of the most devastating situations that our community has dealt with in decades,” Carr said. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the health and safety of our residents, our visitors and our natural habitats.”
Cause of leak under investigation
The company was working with local, state and federal agencies on recovery efforts, 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,” he said. “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.”
The company notified the Coast Guard on Saturday morning when employees were conducting a line inspection and noticed a sheen in the water, Willsher said.
The facilities operating the pipeline were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s and are inspected every other year, including during the pandemic, he said.
The pipeline has been “suctioned at both ends to keep additional crude out,” Willsher said, adding that he doesn’t expect more oil to be released.
“We are still assessing to look for the source and figure out,” Eric Laughlin, California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson, said Sunday at a news conference. “It doesn’t appear there’s further fuel leaking, but we’re still working on identifying that.”
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement was assisting in Coast Guard-led response to the oil spill, the agency told CNN. Its role was to assist “in identifying the location and source of any spills and provide technical assistance to the Unified Command in stopping the spillage,” it said Sunday in a statement.
Impacts on human health
Human health impacts from excessive exposure to oil or dispersants could include skin, eye, nose and throat irritation, headache, dizziness, vomiting or shortness of breath, the Orange County Health Care Agency said in a health advisory.
“Even when an oil sheen may not be visible, dispersed and dissolved oil contaminants may exist in the water,” County Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau said.
Anyone experiencing adverse symptoms should contact their doctor, Chau said.
“Inhalation of toxic oil vapors or other aerosolized oil compound particles from wind-blown waves can cause these side effects. The elderly, children, and folks with respiratory diseases such as asthma will be more susceptible to adverse side effects from inhaling the oil vapors,” the agency said.
Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly spelled Eric Laughlin’s last name.
CNN’s Sonnet Swire, Claudia Dominguez and Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.