This story and cover picture is courtesy of NBC News…
A 13-square-mile oil spill off the coast of Southern California forced the closure of a pipeline and prompted officials to close beaches and warn of an ecological disaster Sunday.
The offshore oil pipeline being investigated as the potential source for the 126,000-gallon leak off Newport Beach has been shut down and suctioned, according to Amplify Energy, which owns the company that operates the pipeline.
Officials said Sunday that approximately 3,150 gallons of oil had been recovered from the water but the toll on the local ecosystem was already evident.
“We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted.
A 2012 plan prepared by the pipeline’s operator Beta Offshore and obtained by NBC News said that a full cut in the pipeline three miles from shore could release roughly 3,000 barrels, or 126,000 gallons, of oil.
It described such a situation as a “worst case” scenario that could cause “significant and substantial harm to the environment” because “of its proximity to navigable waters and adjoining shoreline areas designated as environmentally sensitive.”
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