By BRIAN MELLEY
LOS ANGELES (AP) – An official says the pipeline that leaked thousands of gallons of oil off the California coast was the only major pipe in the county not required to have an automatic shut-off valve.
Santa Barbara Deputy Energy Director Kevin Drude said Friday that the company that originally owned the pipeline skirted the requirement by suing the county in the late 1980s.
Drude says the predecessor to Plains All American Pipeline successfully argued it should be subject to federal oversight because the line was part of an interstate network.
Federal regulators don’t require auto shut-off valves.
It’s not clear if such a device would have detected the leak or reduced the spill that dumped as much as 105,000 gallons of crude oil. The spill ran into the ocean and has harmed birds and marine life.