By land and by sea, cleanup crews descended Wednesday morning on the Gaviota Coast as the major oil spill from the day before grew to cover nine miles of ocean along the shoreline. Initial estimates put the spill at approximately 21,000 gallons, but officials now fear as many as 105,000 gallons of crude oil may have leaked from the broken underground pipe operated by Plains All American Pipeline. Responders are still working to pin down the exact figure and to determine how much oil seeped into the ocean.
The oil sheen has quickly spread down the coast from the spill site just west of Refugio State Beach; yesterday's estimate put the oil slick, which has now split into two separate slicks, at four miles long with expectations it would only spread another two to four miles.
According to information just released by local, state, and federal officials operating the Joint Information Center (JIC) that is overseeing the response effort, a Plains control room employee "saw abnormalities in the line and shut it down at approximately 11:30 a.m." on Tuesday. Initial reports from local authorities stated that county firefighters responding to smells of gas were the first to spot the leak. Plains personnel then traveled to the spill site and "visually confirmed the release at 1:30 p.m.," the JIC dispatch reads. County officials with the Office of Emergency Management originally stated on Tuesday that an abandoned and inactive pipeline had discharged a small amount of "leftover product."
