A major oil spill off the California coast has caused dead birds, fish and oil to wash up on Hunting
Source: CNN
By Alta Spells,
(CNN) A spill of about 3,000 barrels of oil -- or roughly 126,000 gallons of post-production crude -- off the coast of Southern California is a "potential ecological disaster," Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said Saturday.
By Sunday morning, "We've started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted.
Link to tweet
Foley said the leak was about 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, and oil has started washing up on the shores of the city of 200,000 people.
As of Sunday morning, "the leak has not been completely stopped," Huntington Beach said in a press release. It said preliminary patching has been completed to repair the oil spill site, and additional "repair efforts will be attempted in the morning."
Oil has started to wash up on the Huntington Beach shore, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said.
FULL title: A major oil spill off the California coast has caused dead birds, fish and oil to wash up on Huntington Beach, officials say
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/03/us/california-oil-spill/index.html
XanaDUer2
(10,327 posts)to push the green deal.
Talking to these people is pointless. Pointless.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,815 posts)xxqqqzme
(14,887 posts)Wonder what was making those ear splitting overhead noises from 11 to 4 yesterday? I thought I was going to lose my roof more than once.
BidenRocks
(813 posts)Tens of thousands of people have lost their day out to the beach.
BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)Isn't that one of the few RW loon cities left in CA that is now finally shifting to purple? I just found this article that although confirms the tide is turning, the loons are still out and about and loud.
By Hannah FryStaff Writer
Oct. 3, 2021 5 AM PT
In Orange County, no place has been more of a pandemic battleground than Huntington Beach. Some residents joined pro-Trump, anti-mask rallies at the beach. Others were appalled. Mayor Pro Tem Tito Ortiz refused to wear a mask at City Council meetings until he resigned, paving the way for a Black woman to replace him and flip the council majority Democratic. Last months recall election cemented the citys reality as more ideologically mixed than its reputation for showy right-wing gestures would suggest.
The city voted in favor of recalling Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, but not by a landslide. While still more conservative than the county as a whole, Huntington Beach has become increasingly ethnically and politically diverse. The same is true of other traditionally deep-red enclaves, which are less likely than in the past to support a cause like recalling the governor largely on his pandemic performance.
For the near future, Orange County may continue to teeter on either side of the political divide, as when two U.S. House seats that flipped blue in 2018 went red again two years later. O.C. went against the recall by 52% to 48% a narrower margin than Newsoms overwhelming statewide victory but still a significant result in the former conservative bastion. Experts say the long-term trend for O.C. leans blue, with the politicization of the pandemic accelerating movement away from the Republican Party.
Battles over masking and vaccines drove some conservative, science-believing voters to support Newsom likely some of the same voters, alienated by Donald Trumps insult-heavy, truth-bending tactics, who helped the county break for Hillary Clinton and then Joe Biden four years later. Theres this loud minority that comes out and wants to portray the county as still being very conservative, with the anti-vaxxers and some of the white supremacist ideas, but thats not the case, said Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-10-03/after-recall-orange-county-still-teeters-on-red-blue-line
This oil spill is just horrific, not just for the air, sea, and land wildlife but considering that is sortof a "touristy" beach town, it will have a major impact on the economy there.
leftyladyfrommo
(18,815 posts)BumRushDaShow
(127,270 posts)ancianita
(35,812 posts)they'll keep surfing while the platforms help kill off the 4% of wild animal life that remains on the planet.
Here's Laguna Beach down the road. Imagine the polluted fish they've been eating.
Hekate
(90,189 posts)And how is the presence of the drilling platforms their fault?
ancianita
(35,812 posts)they don't? This is dated before the oil spill and I didn't take the photo.
In 2018 I spent a couple of days watching fishing and surfing in front of five oil rigs I counted just off Huntington Beach. I chatted with a local at the motel about the rigs, and asked about oil leaks. He said oil leaks can happen even while pumping continues, though it's not so noticeable.
He's no expert and neither am I. But when I hear of a huge spill, I also conclude that a creeping pollution affects fish; I've seen a similar creeping of pollution while living by the Gulf of Mexico. Most fish restaurants in the Sarasota area where I live bring in fish from the Atlantic; I don't eat at those restaurants, but when I have eaten on the coast, the several times I've asked servers, I learned that they don't know what offerings on the menu are locally fished; menus are filled with meals of "mixed cuts" of fish, with increased dishes of chicken and land animal meats. Two big fish restaurants, one called the Seafood Shack located on the bay side of Anna Maria Island, have shut down.
I didn't say that anything oil rigs do is their fault. I just pointed out that fishing and surfing continues; people want to continue to enjoy their coastal habits. If I sound cynical, I'm sorry.
From an hour ago:
Please do not go in the water. I see that there are still some people out here fishing, Foley said. This is a toxic area. You should not be fishing out here, and we should stay at least 50 feet from the shore.
I'm as sad as anyone about the damage, also pissed at our state and federal government's offshore drilling policy.
Hekate
(90,189 posts)
but live in Sarasota, which if Im not mistaken is in Florida?
I live on the Central Coast in California, and have for over 40 years, most of it in Goleta next door to Santa Barbara. It is a very oil-rich region and was Ground Zero for the creation of Earth Day and the environmental movement due to the utterly disastrous oil spill of 1968. People along the coast in California have strong negative feelings about oil and the power of oil companies. No, surfers cannot go out when theres been a spill, and neither can tourists. And no, local governments can only do so much. Citizen environmental organizations have been battling the power of Big Oil all along, with particular emphasis on anyone who uses the water.
Interesting thing about oil, though. Even absent modern drilling, certain areas have seeps. On any ordinary day a walk along Goleta Beach leaves you with tar on your feet, and if you swim or surf you have spots of tar on your body. Thats harmless. These are from natural seeps for thousands of years the Chumash tribes knew it well, and used this material for waterproofing their canoes, among other things.
ancianita
(35,812 posts)during a month long road trip I took around the continent in 2018. I was moving up the lower coast on my way to visit a friend in Pasadena and a childhood friend in Northridge. I spent two nights right on Huntington Beach. Sorry for the confusion.
How little power locals have over offshore commercial zones is a maritime agreement set up before we were born, sadly. The news reports that no one seems to know who the rig's owner is, either. Figures.
Thanks for the interesting info about tar seepage. I've recently read about oil use dating back to Herodotus, indigenous people's use of it for waterproofing canoes, etc., and that the history I was taught about the US being the first to drill isn't even true, that drilling was already going on in Canada. Amazing.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Hekate
(90,189 posts)catchnrelease
(1,941 posts)There are at least two major bird areas where this is happening--Newport Back Bay and Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. And at this time of year birds will be migrating back down here for the winter. Between getting the oil on them directly, the loss/contamination of their food supply (the fish), this will be devastating for them.
jgmiller
(383 posts)I've never understood this, I can buy a device to put on my main water supply line that shuts down the water within a second of detecting a leak but they can't do this on a subsea oil pipeline? Of course the answer is they can, they just don't care.
C Moon
(12,188 posts)There's a dog beach in Huntington Beach (great place if you have a pup), and when you look out at the ocean, you see several of those huge ugly oil stations.
wiggs
(7,788 posts)no fishing or takes to 6 miles out. Most of Laguna Beach is a fairly new no-take preserve, set among some of the most gorgeous beaches and coves in the world. I snorkel out there a couple times per month, including winter...and the kelp and fish have rebounded amazingly. We liken it to an underwater Yosemite. We even see abalone again (gone for decades). Very concerned about long term impacts to sea life, beach usability, water quality.
Heard that the slick has reached North Laguna already, some 20 miles from the spill. Apparently, this is not crude but more toxic partially refined stuff.
October is prime snorkeling month with clear water and warm weather. And, usually, no oil.