Oil spill reports reviewed Monday by The Associated Press raise questions about the Coast Guard’s response to one of the state’s largest recent spills and about how quickly Amplify Energy, the company operating three offshore platforms and the pipeline, recognized it had a problem and notified authorities.
Two early calls about the spill came into the National Response Center, which is staffed by the
The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean off
Federal and state authorities require rapid reporting of a spill. Failure to do so has led to criminal prosecutions of companies, including
Meanwhile,
Amplify Energy CEO
“It is an investigation with objective parties involved, so that we will eventually know the outcome,” Anderson said.
Cargo ships entering the twin ports of
Signs were posted Tuesday in
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.
“There’s going to be huge response costs the company will be liable for,” he said. “At some point, the incident commanders are going to give the guilty party a paper with a bill on it.”
Pettit said many local businesses will have claims against the company for loss of resources, including loss of beach use by residents. “There are people who can put an economic value on this, and you multiply it by the number of people who would have gone but didn’t,” he said.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr.
A foreign ship anchored off the coast witnessed an “unknown sheen in the water near their vessel” at
Harrison, a retired
About six hours after the first report was received, the
“Although there were numerous vessels within immediate proximity to the anomaly, none were clearly associated with the anomaly,” the report said. “These factors prevented the possible identification of a point source.”
The company that operates the pipeline first reported the spill to the Coast Guard’s response center at
A 2016 spill response plan for the Amplify platforms submitted to federal regulators called for immediate notification of federal officials when more than one barrel of oil is released into the water. Releases greater than five barrels — or that threaten state waters or the shoreline — require immediate notification of the state fire marshal and
The pipeline was supposed to be monitored under an automated leak detection system that would report problems to a control room staffed around the clock on the oil platform known as Elly.
The system was designed to trigger an alarm whenever a change in the flow of oil is detected. But how fast it can pick up on those changes was expected to vary according to the size of the leak. For a large leak — 10% or more of the amount of oil flowing through the pipeline — the detection time was estimated at five minutes. Smaller leaks were expected to take up to 50 minutes to detect, according to the response plan.
The spill plan warned that a break in the pipeline could cause “substantial harm to the environment” and that in a worst-case scenario 3,111 barrels (131,000 gallons) of oil could be released from the pipeline.
Willsher said required agencies were notified “instantly” when the company recognized the leak was from its pipe. Records show the spill was not reported by Amplify Energy, but by Witt O’Brien’s, a crisis and emergency management firm listed on the spill response plan as the point of contact to notify the NRC.
The report said the leaking pipe had been shut off, but containment was not confirmed.
Potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the
Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.
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