On October 1st a large oil spill of 126,000 gallons was first detected. It was a result of a 13 inch break in an oil pipeline running along the ocean floor. The 3,000 barrels of oil that leaked into an ocean closed beaches for around a week but more importantly caused Governor Gavin Newson to declare a state of emergency due to ecological effects. Now on the date of December 31st state officials have declared the cleanup from the spill is complete.
In the article it is noted the team effort from federal, local and state levels helped put the cleanup behind them. However, the spill broached important infrastructure, and future environmental planning California will have to face. The aging and fragile pipes are the cause of this spill. It is believed the pipe was dragged along by a container ship’s anchor until it broke. The lack of maintenance on these pipes as well as their general weakness due to age is important for California to start to tackle. Lastly, due to the ecological impacts from an oil spill California can begin planning to phase out off-shore oil rigs in the future; with growing support for this initiative.
It is great news that the oil spill has ended, however we need to look at how it happened in the first place to further prevent events like this from happening in the future. How can we prevent these events from happening?
Thank you Kate. A big part of preventing these catastrophes is doing maintenance on the pipes that pump this oil through the ocean. Many of these pipes are very old and need repairs. We cannot be negligent!