Response by operator of broken oil pipeline faces scrutiny (SANTA BARBARA, Calif)

[Omaha Steve]

FILE - In this May 20, 2015, file photo, workers monitor the site of an underground oil pipe break up a hill from Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif. The pipe, owned by Plains All American Pipeline, spewed oil down a culvert and into the Pacific on May 19 before it was shut off. Democratic U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein say the response to the oil spill that blackened beaches and created a 10-square-mile slick on the ocean was "insufficient." and called on federal regulators to provide more details on the activities and decisions by Plains. (AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant, File)

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/5d8f0667f8314821a30fda0ea7d0dc5d/response-operator-broken-oil-pipeline-faces-scrutiny

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters, emergency workers and officials from Plains All American Pipeline had gathered last week at a fire station preparing to train for the worst — an oil spill — when a 911 call came in reporting a noxious smell in the air at a nearby beach.

The Santa Barbara County Fire Department rushed to the shoreline, where they discovered oil flowing across a beach and into the Pacific. What was supposed to be a drill turned real.

"It was very black. You couldn't see the sand anymore," fire Capt. Craig Vanderzwaag recalled after arriving at the scene of the leak shortly after noon May 19. "You could see rolling waves with black oil lapping up on the beach."

By the time the firefighters traced the source of the spill to a ruptured underground pipeline, thousands of gallons of crude oil had escaped. As oil fouled the sand and water, firefighters wielding shovels and axes moved dirt and rocks to prevent more oil from spilling into a drainage ditch, but the leak quickly stretched 9 miles along the coast.

FULL story at link.