Ship’s anchor may have caused massive oil spill off the coast of Southern California

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A floating barrier known as booms is set up to try to stop further incursion into the Wetlands Talbert Marsh after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., last week.

Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP

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Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP

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Workers clean oil from the sand, south of the pier, in Newport Beach, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. A leak in an oil pipeline caused a spill off the coast of Southern California, sending about 126,000 gallons of oil into the ocean, some ending up on beaches in Orange County.

Jeff Gritchen/AP

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Jeff Gritchen/AP

Workers clean oil from the sand, south of the pier, in Newport Beach, Calif., Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. A leak in an oil pipeline caused a spill off the coast of Southern California, sending about 126,000 gallons of oil into the ocean, some ending up on beaches in Orange County.

Jeff Gritchen/AP

«We are going to make sure that we have answers as to how this happened, and to make sure that we hold the responsible party accountable, said Congresswoman Katie Porter, a Democrat who chairs the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee. She represents a district a few miles inland from the spill area.

The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean but animal rescuers ashore have been pleasantly surprised to find few birds covered in oil.

During a two-hour boat tour off Huntington Beach coastline, an AP video journalist saw no visible oil. Pelicans and other sea birds floated on calm waters, and four dolphins swam by the boat.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard officials defended their decision to wait until Saturday morning to investigate a possible spill first reported Friday night — some 10 hours earlier — near a cluster of boats that were anchored off Huntington Beach.

At 2:06 a.m. Saturday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said satellite images showed the strong likelihood of an oil slick. The report was made to the National Response Center, a hazardous spill hotline staffed by the Coast Guard.

Residents in nearby Newport Beach had also complained Friday evening about a strong stench of petroleum, and police put out a notice to the public about it.

The Coast Guard was alerted to a sheen on the water by a «good Samaritan but did not have enough corroborating evidence and was hindered by darkness and a lack of technology to seek out the spill, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brian Penoyer told The Associated Press.

Penoyer said it was fairly common to get reports of oil sheens in a major seaport.

«In hindsight, it seems obvious, but they didn’t know that at that time, Penoyer said.

Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom repeated his calls for the U.S. to move beyond oil. Newsom last year signed an executive order banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

«It’s time, once and for all, to disabuse ourselves that this has to be part of our future. This is part of our past, he said from Bolsa Chica State Beach, where he was joined by local, state and federal officials to discuss the spill.