Plains Pipeline granted response authority for oil spill work

PORT HUENEME — An effort to continue removing oily materials from an offshore area affected by a 2015 oil spill near Santa Barbara was made permanent, thanks to a California Coastal Commission vote on March 9. The Coastal Commission specifically voted to grant Plains All American Pipeline’s request to permanently authorize work at an offshore area known as Section 5. Plains Pipeline sought to be able to remove oily materials from a bluff lip, steep slope face and cobbled beach area at Section 5, which is a coastal area adjacent to a state beach northwest of the Santa Barbara metropolis. “Section 5 refers to the bluff and cliff face area near the release site,” according to Coastal Commission staff. “During the release, oil flowed along a narrow bluff top swale, and then over the edge of the bluff along a near vertical bedrock cliff, and along a soil and rock chute leading down-slope to the cobble zone at the base of the bluff. The cobbled shoreline area at the toe of the bluff is within the Coastal Commission’s permit jurisdiction.” Approval of the Plains Pipeline request comes almost three years after an underground line ruptured near Refugio State Beach. An estimated 124,000 gallons of...