An oil strip seen in Huntington Beach, Southern California, on the 3rd (local time).[AP=연합뉴스]Oil pipelines near the site of a large-scale oil spill off the coast of Southern California have been closed.
Martin Wilshere, chief executive of American oil company AmpliFi Energy, said on the 3rd (local time) that there will be no more oil spills into southern California waters, the Associated Press reported.
“I don’t think there will be more, that’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” he said in a press conference on the oil spill.
He added that divers are still working to determine the source and cause of the oil spill.
Oil pipelines have been cited as the cause of the oil spill.
Supervisor Katrina Foley, executive director of Orange County, southern California, said on Twitter that oil was leaking from the rupture point of a pipeline connected to an oil rig called “Eli”.
Local authorities estimated that about 572,807 liters of oil had leaked from the waters of Orange County since the afternoon of the 1st or the morning of the 2nd.
The leaked oil belt was found to have formed over 10km from Huntington Beach, a popular beach, to Newport Beach to the south.
The sticky black oil and carcasses of birds and fish were washed away on the beach, and the stench from the oil spread everywhere.
![Oil floating on the sea in Huntington Beach, California, USA on the 3rd (local time). A major oil spill occurred in the area as a hole in the pipeline was punctured. [AFP=연합뉴스]](https://i0.wp.com/file.mk.co.kr/meet/yonhap/2021/10/04/image_readmed_2021_939173_1_083611.jpg?w=500&ssl=1)
Oil floating on the sea in Huntington Beach, California, USA on the 3rd (local time). A major oil spill occurred in the area as a hole in the pipeline was punctured. [AFP=연합뉴스]Huntington Beach City Mayor Kim Carr said the beach closures in the accident could last for weeks or months.
“This oil spill is one of the most catastrophic events that communities have experienced in decades,” he said.
The large-scale oil spill in Orange County was the first in more than 30 years since 1.6 million liters of oil spilled into the sea from the tanker American Trader in February 1990.
Huntington Beach City officials are working to stop the spilled oil from flowing into wetlands inhabited by a variety of birds, including endangered species.
The oil spill was first reported to the US Coast Guard (USGS) on the morning of the 2nd, and Huntington Beach officials canceled the scheduled final day of the Pacific Air Show.
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