Records show that the U.S. Coast Guard received a report of a possible Southern California oil spill more than 12 hours before a pipeline company reported it and the Coast Guard launched a cleanup effort.
Two early calls about the spill came into the National Response Center, which is staffed by the Coast Guard and notifies other agencies of disasters for quick response. The first was from an anchored ship that noticed a sheen on the water. The second came six hours later from a federal agency that said a possible oil slick was spotted on satellite imagery, according to reports by the California Office of Emergency Services.
Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley expressed concern that the company could withhold evidence. But the county’s emergency manager, Michelle Anderson, reassured the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that the Coast Guard was on the scene as well to make sure the probe is independent. Experts say it’s too early to determine the spill’s full impact on the environment, but so far the number of animals found harmed is minimal.David Pettit, senior attorney for Natural Resources Defense Council who worked on the Deepwater Horizon response and other spills, said damage assessment will require biologists to study multiple factors.
A foreign ship anchored off the coast witnessed an “unknown sheen in the water near their vessel” at 6:13 p.m. and the report was called into the response center just after 8:22 p.m., according to the state report.Lonnie Harrison Jr., vice president of Colonial Compliance Systems Inc., which works with foreign ships in U.S. waters to report spills, said one its clients reported the sighting.
The company that operates the pipeline first reported the spill to the Coast Guard’s response center at 8:55 a.m. Saturday. However, the report said the incident occurred at 2:30 a.m.
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