California Oil Spill Closes Beaches and Renews Call for Drilling Ban
by Jill Cowan, Clifford Krauss and Ivan Penn, New York Times (October 5, 2021) – “Beta Offshore had a 2,000-gallon spill from a pipeline between the two platforms, Eureka and Elly, in 1999 for which the operator was fined $48,000, according to Bill Caram, executive director of Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit group in Bellingham, Wash. Beta Offshore also had four federal compliance violations or warnings from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a federal agency that is part of the Transportation Department, between 2008 and 2010 involving welding, valves and risk management procedures. Mr. Caram said he was troubled that it took the company time to identify where its pipe failed. ‘Why did it take so long for the cleanup effort to begin?’ he said. ‘If the operator has a proper spill response plan, they should be able to put it into action very quickly.’”
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