Saving Seafood

CALIFORNIA: California commercial fishermen set to receive second oil spill settlement in September

July 12, 2023 — California commercial fishermen and seafood processors as well as other coastal property owners and businesses could be awarded a second settlement as a result of an oil spill near Huntington Beach in October 2021.

In October 2021, approximately 25,000 gallons of crude oil were discharged from a cracked pipeline owned and operated by Amplify Energy and its subsidies near Huntington Beach, according to a federal grand jury indictment against the oil company. The jury accused Amplify of acting negligently by “operating the pipeline with an understaffed and fatigued crew” and failing to properly respond to multiple alarms.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

California Spill Not the Environmental Disaster First Feared

October 9, 2021 — After a crude oil sheen was detected on the waters off the Southern California coast, environmentalists feared the worst: A massive spill that would wreck the ecosystem.

A week later, the region and its signature beaches appear to have been spared a potentially calamitous fate, though the long-term toll on plant and animal life remains unknown.

The Coast Guard estimates a minimum of about 25,000 gallons (95,000 liters) of oil spilled from a ruptured pipeline off the shores of Orange County and no more than 132,000 gallons (500,000 liters).

“Based on what we’re seeing, it’s a lighter impact than expected of a worst-case discharge,” California Fish and Wildlife Lt. Christian Corbo said. “We’re hoping to see less impacts to the shoreline, less impacts to wildlife, based on that lowered threshold.”

The news was welcome after a harrowing week of beach closures in seaside communities where life revolves around the water. Officials initially feared Huntington Beach — dubbed Surf City USA — could be off-limits to surfers and swimmers for months. But Mayor Kim Carr on Thursday said she was “cautiously optimistic” they could be back in the water in weeks.

Read the full story at NBC New York

 

Proposed law could mean more drilling off California coast

November 27, 2017 — ORANGE COUNTY, California — Many of the 27 oil platforms drilling into the underwater shelf off the coast from Santa Barbara to Huntington Beach are decades old and, in the eyes of the oil industry and others, ready to be shut down.

Some cost big money to operate at a time of sagging oil prices. Others need expensive technical upgrades. And all are political targets, widely viewed in a liberal state as bigger environmental risks than the potential reward of pulling yet more carbon-generating oil from the Earth.

But the rigs also represent potential profit. By some estimates at least one billion barrels of oil remain untapped in the shelf off of Southern California, much of it accessible from federal waters, not the state-controlled areas within three miles of the coastline.

And that risk vs. profit conflict — plus Trump-era politics — is why lawmakers representing California are clashing with federal regulators over proposed legislation known as the Strengthening the Economy with Critical Untapped Resources to Expand American Energy Act.

Proponents say the SECURE American Energy Act will create high-wage jobs by making it easier for oil companies to work on federal land and in federal waters, all with less federal oversight.

Read the full story at The Orange County Register