A large oil spill is floating in the sea off the coast of Southern California after a pipeline leak. Picturesque beaches are threatened with severe damage, and dead fish and birds are washed ashore.
Los Angeles – The oil spill off the coast of Southern California polluted other beaches on Monday. The cleaning work continues after more than 475,000 liters of oil leaked from a leaked pipeline since Saturday.
According to the Coast Guard, the oil spill is being circumscribed by ships and siphoned off from the surface. Action teams put up barriers to protect threatened wetlands from contamination.
The beaches in the popular beach town of Laguna Beach have now also been closed to visitors. In Huntington Beach, which is adjacent to the north, swimmers, surfers and walkers were asked to leave the beach area on Sunday.
Investigations are ongoing
The defective pipeline is several kilometers off the coast. It is connected to a conveyor platform. The operators announced that diving robots had examined the pipe over a length of around 2500 meters and discovered the possible problem. Divers should now investigate further. It is possible that the pipeline was hit by the anchor of a ship, said company boss Martyn Willsher.
In the region with over a dozen oil and gas rigs, there are many cargo ships calling at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Environmentalists have long warned that the partly outdated infrastructure for oil production off the coast poses a major risk. dpa
