Huntington Beach Oil Spill Photos Show Just How Big The Mess Is In California
The surf town's beaches are covered in sludge.
The oil is so thick on the shores of California's Huntington Beach that you can pick it up in gooey black handfuls — and the cleanup has only just begun.
Crews have been trying to scrub the shoreline clean for days now after more than 126,000 gallons of crude oil leaked out of a pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach near Los Angeles on Saturday.
The spill now stretches from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach according to CNN. Overhead photos show that it looks like a giant swirl of black and rainbows in all the wrong ways.
Investigators are still trying to figure out exactly what caused the spill, but they suspect that it had something to do with a ship's anchor that hooked onto the Amplify Energy-owned pipeline.
"The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bow string. And so at its widest point is about 105 feet away from where it was," Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said at a news conference on Tuesday. "So, it is kind of an almost a semicircle."
The pipeline is encased in concrete, so the anchor must've really hit it hard to cause the 13-inch tear that they found.
Now the oil is floating on the surface in a miles-long patch and it's... pretty gross.
The oil started washing up on shore earlier this week and people have been sharing footage of the lumpy black stuff for days now while calling for the pipeline company to be held accountable.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency and the feds are racing to keep the spill contained while they clean it up, but it will take some time to remove it all.
It's here\u2026\n#OilSpill #HuntingtonBeach #NewportBeachpic.twitter.com/KXhcM99QWn— AGAERIALPHOTOG (@AGAERIALPHOTOG) 1633241263
The oil is also expected to cause major problems for local wildlife, but officials really don't want anyone rushing out to save the animals themselves.
Instead, they're urging people to leave this to the professionals and donate money if they really want to help.
We recovered 8 oiled birds today in the spill area in Orange County. 3 are receiving veterinary care (including this sanderling). A brown pelican was humanely euthanized, having injuries unrelated to the incident. More updates will be posted to https://OWCN.org\u00a0\n\n#OCspillpic.twitter.com/v6Szbv7xO9— Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) (@Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN)) 1633403085
The City of Huntington Beach says you can donate to the cleanup effort here and you can help the animal rescuers here.
It's the worst spill near Hunting Beach since 1990 when a tanker released more than 400,000 gallons of oil in the same area.