“This is 2021. It isn’t like we’re living in the stone ages. We have technology and safety features.'
As millions of Californians descended on Orange County's famed beaches on a blazing hot Saturday, they had no idea that a massive oil spill had occurred the night before.
The two-mile long spill underscores a disturbing reality with oil spills and other hazardous releases – as many as a dozen a day are reported to emergency hotlines just in California, and the public usually never knows. But by the time the first report was made of an oil spill off southern California on Friday, according to a copy of the report obtained by USA TODAY/The Desert Sun, it was already two nautical miles long and 100 meters wide. And the public wouldn't be told until nearly 24 hours later, after millions of people had gone to nearby beaches on a sunny Saturday.
News reports quoted a company official saying they had notified the U.S. Coast Guard that an oil spill had occurred, after the company observed an oily sheen in the water. The Coast Guard said it received an initial report of an oil sheen at 9:10 a.m. That was 15 hours after the first report was made to the national hotline and dozens of agencies were listed as having been notified by fax.
In last week's spill, the public was not notified until later Saturday, despite complaints from the public and shop owners in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach about a heavy tar-like smell starting Friday afternoon.
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