California works to contain pollution from Pacific coast oil spill

California works to contain pollution from Pacific coast oil spill

Clean-up crews worked on Monday to contain the damage from an oil spill off the coast of California that dumped up to 3,000 barrels of oil into the Pacific Ocean and has closed the beach community known as “Surf City”.

The spill on Saturday is thought to have been caused by a broken pipeline connected to an offshore platform owned by Houston-based Amplify Energy.

Shares in Amplify, which closed its production and pipeline operations in the Beta Field where the oil was pumped, fell by 43.8 per cent to $3.23 on Monday.

Huntington Beach, about 40 miles south of Los Angeles and home of the US Open of Surfing, was hit hardest. Mayor Kim Carr said 13 square miles of ocean and coastline were covered in oil and that an “ecological disaster” was unfolding. Dead fish and birds have washed up on the beach, which the mayor warned could be closed for months.

Oil was also threatening to wash ashore further south in Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, some of the most expensive coastline in the country.

Michelle Steel, a Republican congresswoman from the Orange County district that includes Huntington Beach, has asked the Biden administration to issue a disaster declaration. Orange County was once