GOLETA (KRON/AP) – The cost of cleaning up last month’s oil spill off the Santa Barbara County coast has soared to $69 million so far.
Plains All American Pipeline’s on-scene coordinator, Patrick Hodgins, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the costs are running at $3 million a day. There’s no timetable for when the cleanup will be complete.
About 76 percent of 97 miles of coastline – mostly sandy beaches – have been cleared of oil. Crews are using tools to scrape oil off rocks and cobble beaches.
The May 19 spill occurred after a 10.6 mile onshore pipeline operated by Plains All American ruptured, releasing up to 101,000 gallons of crude.
About 21,000 gallons entered a storm drain and washed out to the Pacific Ocean off near Refugio State Beach.
Authorities say more than 130 birds and 67 mammals have been found dead since the spill.
The spill was smaller than the 1969 oil platform blowout off Santa Barbara County that blackened miles of coastline and killed thousands of shorebirds and other wildlife.
The cause of last month’s oil spill has not yet been determined, but documents released by federal regulators said testing conducted in early May found extensive external corrosion along some sections of the pipeline.