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Workers driving earth moving equipment on Saturday demolished the sand berm that was blocking the mouth of the Santa Ana River at its ocean outlet, now that the danger of spilled oil washing inland seems to have largely abated.
The berm was quickly built last weekend after local officials learned tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil had leaked from a pipeline connected to an oil rig off the coast of Huntington Beach. The U.S. Coast Guard and the state Fish and Wildlife’s spill response division, which are overseeing cleanup, on Thursday revised their estimate to say the spill was likely between about 25,000 and 131,000 gallons.
Most of the spill’s effects were seen in Huntington Beach, but Newport Beach and cities farther south have found tar balls and oil-coated debris on their shores.
A possible plume of oil remained in the ocean several miles off Dana Point as of Saturday afternoon, according to an online spill tracker created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, in a news release Saturday, state and federal officials overseeing spill cleanup said oil recovery teams offshore “have not observed any free-floating oil in the water for three consecutive days.”
As of Saturday morning, the cleanup command reported that about 1,300 people were involved in the effort; 232,500 pounds of oily debris had been collected; and 5,544 gallons of crude had been recovered from the water.
The Oiled Wildlife Care Network said through Friday evening it had recovered 26 live sea and shore birds and 17 dead ones. Among the dead birds were a Buller’s Shearwater and a red-footed booby, which spend most of their time on the open ocean and are rarely seen in Southern California.
While authorities may never be able to pinpoint the exact amount of oil that spilled in this case, the investigation into the cause should “narrow it down to typically a very narrow range of numbers,” said Yvonne Naja Addassi, chief of preparedness for Fish and Wildlife’s spill response office.
An excavator, along with other equipment, removes the earthen dam at the mouth of the Santa Ana River at the border of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021, a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. Newport and Dana Point Harbors reopened on Friday. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Luke Hemsley, left, of Newport Beach and Isabella Perez of San Clemente take to the water on standup paddle boards in Newport Harbor in Newport Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021. Crews continue to clean local beaches while oil washes onshore a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Globs of oil lay on the beach just south of the Newport Beach Pier in Newport Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021, as oil continues to wash onshore a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
As beach goers get out and enjoy the beach and weekend weather on Saturday, October 9, 2021, crews clean the sand at Newport Beach just south of the Newport Beach Pier as oil continues to wash onshore a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
An excavator, along with other equipment, removes the earthen dam at the mouth of the Santa Ana River at the border of Newport Beach and Huntington Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021, a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. Newport and Dana Point Harbors reopened on Friday. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
As beach goers get out and enjoy the beach and weekend weather on Saturday, October 9, 2021, crews clean the sand at Newport Beach just south of the Newport Beach Pier as oil continues to wash onshore a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
As oil continues to wash on to local beaches a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach, kayakers take to paddling around Newport Harbor in Newport Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
A dog rides in the bow of a boat in Newport Harbor in Newport Beach on Saturday, October 9, 2021, as crews continue to clean local beaches while oil washes onshore a week after the offshore oil spill in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Some of the remaining oil in the ocean will evaporate, leaving behind tarry clumps, but workers are trying to skim as much of it as they can from the water’s surface before that happens.
In a sandy beach environment such as Orange County’s coastline, “you don’t get a lot of penetration of oil, so you can go in and pick up the oily tar balls” and not see much impact to the beach environment, Addassi said. But in wetlands such as the Talbert Marsh, oil can be harmful to the organisms that live there and it’s harder to clean up, she said.
One concern authorities are now turning their attention to is boats that were out last weekend and now have oil stuck to their hulls. The cleanup command is setting up decontamination stations and will work with vessel owners to schedule a time for them to come by.
“What we don’t want is people washing it off into the water,” Newport Beach Mayor Brad Avery said.
Addassi said soap dissolves the oil into the water, and harsh cleaners can be toxic to water organisms, so the cleaning stations will use environmentally safe chemicals.
Anyone with an oiled boat is asked to call the claims hotline, 866-985-8366, too schedule a cleaning at an official station.
OC Second District Supervisor Katrina Foley said now that the cleanup is running smoothly, her top priority is helping businesses that suffered from the spill. “We want to make sure that the local businesses that were directly impacted and closed get some kind of bridge.”
On Saturday, a law firm representing a Redondo Beach seafood market, two Orange County fishermen and a Long Beach seafood wholesaler announced it has filed a lawsuit on their behalf that they hope to qualify as a class action. They’re suing Amplify Energy, which operates the oil rig connected to the pipe that leaked, and two of its subsidiaries.
Authorities banned fishing off the Orange County coast soon after the spill was discovered; the ban remained in place Saturday.
It’s at least the third lawsuit to be filed by people and businesses who say they were harmed by the spill.
While spill cleanup continued in some parts of coastal OC, in other areas it was business as usual – or at least, what’s usual for a sunny fall Saturday.
At Marina Park on the Balboa Peninsula, Luke Hemsley of Newport Beach and Isabella Perez were preparing to take to the water on stand-up paddleboards.
Hemsley said he knew about the spill, but heard it wasn’t too bad, and he was excited to get out on the bay.
Marina Park employee Eric Jones said, while dragging rental kayaks onto the sand, that it had been busy at the public park and marina, because the protective measures that were taken kept oil out and allowed the bay to remain open.
“Ever since the beach has been closed, people have been coming here,” he said.
Meanwhile, on the beach side of the peninsula at mid-morning, a few dozen people with towels and umbrellas were spread out across the sand, in view of hazmat-suited workers for Patriot Environmental Services who were scouring the area for any oiled debris. The sandy sections away the waterline are open, but people shouldn’t be getting in the water.
Dennis and Karla Smith came down from Washington’s Puget Sound on vacation and were relaxing in beach chairs not far from the water’s edge.
“I’m good, but he’s a little disappointed” about not being able to go in the water, Karla Smith said of her husband.
The couple arrived in Orange County right before the spill happened, but Dennis Smith said they were still able to have a good time, adding, “it beats working.”
Up north at the Santa Ana River mouth, before the berm came down, the water it had dammed up looked brown and cloudy – if it remains stagnant too long, it loses all its oxygen and can be deadly for fish and other marine life.
Two middle-aged surfers watching the work expected the released dirty river water to mix with the ocean there and make for disgusting conditions for a day or two, but “if there’s waves, they’ll be surfing here on Monday.”
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