The City of Huntington Beach cancelled the second day of the Pacific Airshow today to facilitate cleanup and reduce health impacts from a 126,000-gallon oil spill that covers about 5.8 nautical miles between the Huntington Beach Pier and Newport Beach.
“The City fully acknowledges the gravity of the decision to cancel the final day of the iconic Pacific Airshow, and the disappointment that this decision will cause,” the city said in a statement. “However, the need for prompt and intensive intervention efforts requires complete and unfettered access to the marine environment.”
About 1.5 million people attended the air show Saturday, officials said.
Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the spill of 3,000 barrels worth of oil was reported about 9 a.m. Saturday and drew a response from a broad range of government officials. A unified command including the company Beta Offshore was established.
The oil continues to spill from the pipeline breach location connected to “oil rig Elly,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted. She said the leak location is five miles off the Huntington Beach coast. Platform Elly is just over 7 miles off the coast of Long Beach.
Carr described the situation as a “potential ecologic disaster,” and said some of the oil had reached the shore and was impacting the Talbert Marshlands and the Santa Ana River Trail.
In order to facilitate clean-up efforts, and given the potential health impacts, the decision has been made to cancel the final day of the Pacific Airshow due to yesterday’s oil spill. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you in advance for your understanding. pic.twitter.com/RYr796SZ3r
— City of Huntington Beach (@CityofHBPIO) October 3, 2021
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Skimming equipment and booms were deployed to prevent the inflow of oil into the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve and Huntington Beach Wetlands, city officials said. The California Department of Fish & Wildlife has also set-up the Oiled Wildlife Care Network hotline, at 877-823-6926, for people to call if they see wildlife impacted from the oil but they were urged not to approach the wildlife.
The city also closed beach access from the Pier down to the Santa Ana River jetty.
Health officials warned people not to swim, surf or exercise by the beach because of the potential health hazards, including toxic fumes, which also threaten marine life and other wildlife.
The unified command said the public was being asked to avoid any oiled areas. Trained spill response contractors were cleaning up the disaster. “Public volunteers are not needed and could hinder response efforts.
The US Coast Guard is the lead agency, coordinating the response to the oil spill and investigating how it occurred. The most current information indicates the leak has not been completely stopped but preliminary patching was completed to repair the oil spill site and repair efforts will be attempted Sunday.
Significant ecological impacts in HB.
o Oil has washed up now onto the HB beachfront.
· We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore.o @Calwild has a hotline for wildlife impacted from the oil. Oiled Wildlife Care Network at (877) 823-6926. pic.twitter.com/rtgExxTXZj
— Supervisor Katrina Foley (@SupervisorFoley) October 3, 2021
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Foley — who represents the impacted cities of Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach — said the damage from the spill could be irreversible. She said the beaches and marshlands are “part of our heritage” and draw countless numbers of people to the shore.
“We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore,” she tweeted.
She wrote that Newport Beach Mayor Brad Avery “hit the oil slick in his boat today heading back from Catalina. He saw dolphins swimming thru the oil.”
An estimated 3,400 birds were killed when the American Trader oil tanker ran over its anchor and punctured its hull on February 7, 1990 spilling an estimated 416,600 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Huntington Beach, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
As a result of the spill, the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center was established March 31, 1998 at 21900 Pacific Coast Highway to help injured and orphaned wildlife including oil-soiled birds. A makeshift facility at that site treated birds injured in the American Trader spill in 1990, according to the center’s website.
Source: Orange County Register
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