California authorities rush to contain biggest oil spill in decades

Californian authorities were racing Monday to contain the damage done from a major oil spill described as an “environmental catastrophe.”

Beaches along a 24 kilometer stretch of coastline were closed, as cleanup crews scrambled to contain the damage in one of California’s biggest spills in decades.

The US Coast Guard coordinating the response said early Monday that oil amounting to less than three percent of the spill had been recovered, and that more than a mile of oil containment booms had been deployed.

“Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil-covered fish and birds washing up along our coastline,” including in protected wetlands, the City of Huntington Beach said in a statement Sunday.

Beta Offshore is the company responsible for the leak, a California subsidiary of Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp.

“We will be working to ensure that Amplify Energy Corporation does everything possible to rectify this environmental catastrophe,” Huntington Beach said.

Amplify Energy said in a statement Monday that all of its production and pipeline operations were halted, “as a precautionary measure.”

The spill originated near the Elly platform, which was built in 1980 and is one of 23 oil and gas drilling platforms in federal waters off California, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Orange County officials warned that the affected beaches could be closed for weeks or months.

“This is why the US needs to end coastal oil drilling,” the Times wrote in an editorial.