Pipeline rupture leads to spilling of 20,000 gallons crude oil and a four-mile oil slick on California coast

A major environmental problem has come up with an estimated 21,000 gallons of crude oil having been dumped into the ocean from a broken pipeline. This has resulted in an oil spill that is stretching about four miles off the central California coast along a public beach.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 20 May 2015.

The pipeline runs parallel to Highway 101 near Santa Barbara and it has left a slick that is extending for miles along Refugio State Beach and extending about 50 yards into the water.
This has been indicated by an officer of the Coast Guard.
The immediate action by the authorities is to shut off a 24-inch pipeline while the cause of the rupture is being investigated. Santa Barbara County health officials have shut down Refugio, the central site of the spill.
However, this stretch of coastline about 20 miles northwest of Santa Barbara is dotted with state-run beaches that are popular with campers. The spill would prove to be a damper as it has come just a few days before the Memorial Day weekend and the subsequent start of the summer camping season.
The full impact of this major oil spill on maritime life, both plants and animals, can be known only after sometime when they wash up ashore.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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