– State of Emergency Declared for Oil Spill Off Santa Barbara Coast (NBC, May 20, 2015):
California Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday issued an emergency proclamation for Santa Barbara County due to the effects of an oil spill near Refugio State Beach.
Oil floating off the Southern California coast after a spill from a broken oil pipe now stretches about 9 miles, an overnight expansion that was “more than we anticipated last night,” a U.S. Coast Guard captain said Wednesday.
The spill along the coast near Santa Barbara dumped possibly as much as 105,000 gallons of oil from a 2-foot pipeline onto the Refugio State Beach shore, creating miles-long slicks in the ocean after leaking for several hours before it was shut off.
The spill shut down popular El Capitan Beach and campground just days before the unofficial kick-off to the summer season, Memorial Day weekend, according to the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management.
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