Takeaways from Destructive, Preventable Orange County Oil Spill
On the first of this month, a ruptured Amplify Energy Corp. pipeline spewed more than 588 barrels of crude oil just under 5 miles off the coast of Huntington Beach. The 13-square mile, toxic oil slick soon spread into biodiverse coastal wetlands devastating Huntington Beach wildlife.
Despite regulations requiring rapid spill reporting, over 12 hours passed before officials notified of the spill off California’s southern coast responded, intensifying the disaster. The company operating the ruptured pipeline has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations, and has been subject to enforcement fines. Ultimately, the spill shut down fisheries and beaches and required intensive marine life rescue efforts.
Oil spills, like in Orange County, can wipe out entire species’ populations and risk the health and livelihood of our California coast. Marine wildlife, such as sea otters, who depend on their dense fur for insulation, are critically impaired by oil contact. Once in contact with oil, the otters are at risk of decreased buoyancy and hypothermia (Lipscomb et al. 1994). Persisting oil in the environment further threatens sea otter survival as otters may ingest oil contaminated food or inhale VOCs from a spill (Johnson and Garshelis 1995). Already threatened by increased shore activity and climate impacts, marine wildlife face growing obstacles to oil spill recovery.
The impacted wildlife may not fully recover from the spill within our lifetime. Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, it took over two decades for the decimated Prince William Sound sea otter population to begin recovering. Several thousand otters were killed in Exxon Valdez because of the 42 million liters of Prudhoe Bay crude oil spill. A USGS research biologist documenting the sea otters’ path to recovery stated “[a]lthough recovery timelines varied widely among species, our work shows that recovery of species vulnerable to long-term effects of oil spills can take decades.” Scientists determined the sea otters’ recovery was in part impeded by chronic exposure to lingering oil in the environment.
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was especially devastating to sea otters because the spill area largely hit prime sea otter habitat. When considering that the number of sea otters lost to the Exxon Valdez oil spill at least equals, or probably exceeds, the present size of California’s southern sea otter population, an oil spill in a southern sea otter population cluster would be devastating and possibly result in extinction. In fact, scientists, who simulated the Exxon Valdez event in different locations along the California coast, found a similar oil spill within the Monterey Peninsula would expose 90% of the southern sea otter to oil and result in at least a 50% mortality rate.
An oiled sea otter from the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (USGS 2000.)
The recent Orange County spill demonstrates the prevailing threat of offshore drilling and vessel traffic to our state’s invaluable resources. The Otter Project is working to minimize the risk of an oil spill occurring by advocating for the management of vessel traffic in established vessel lanes. So far, the lanes, which have been recognized by the International Maritime Organization, are voluntary, and anecdotal evidence suggests that they are not being followed. Take action and join our fight for the otterly invaluable southern sea otter.