A previous version of this transcript and the audio story incorrectly mention 2005 instead of 2015 for the “all-American pipeline just off the coast of Santa Barbara.”
31 years ago, there was a devastating oil spill in Southern California, but despite the preventative measures put in place since then, there was another spill reported near Huntington Beach recently.
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After 126,000 gallons of crude oil began flooding out of oil platform Elly in Orange County on Saturday, October 2nd, crews are scrambling to contain a spill roughly the size of Santa Monica.
This is not the first oil spill in Southern California’s modern history and comparatively, it isn’t the biggest either. USC Viterbi Professor Najmedin Meshkati explains...
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI: The ‘69 in Santa Barbara, and then there was in 2015, that all-American pipeline just off the coast of Santa Barbara. The spill in 1969 was much more than that. It was almost like three million barrels. And then this is, of course, much smaller. Compared with those, at least those two, ‘69 and 2010 Gulf of Mexico is much smaller.
While this spill is much smaller, the impact still has serious consequences.
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI: The direct impact is, of course, contamination of the beach and closure of the businesses that they cater to the beach close to the tourist and that that could last between weeks or a month or so. Then there is also another direct impact is the contamination and then clean up. The cleanup costs that you have to go. Sometimes you need to take out the topsoil over there if it’s badly contaminated.
The clean-up process takes time, and it not only has implications for humans but also for marine life.
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI: The long-term effect on undersea life and seafood and the marine environment is still a very big issue. However, that’s a very function of how fast that they could skim this oil and then remove it from the water. Or they use dispersant because with dispersant, if they spray dispersant under, that dispersant coagulates the molecule of oil and it sinks to the bottom of the sea. And then that could be eaten by some sea creature that would come back in the food chain.
Professor Meshkati shares what USC students can do about this issue,
NAJMEDIN MESHKATI: I would ask my students and every USC student to do is try to stay on top of the news. Keep yourself informed. Keep yourself engaged by writing letters to editors. And the third one is by staying engaged with your local congressmen and women and senators tell them that. Have we learned enough lessons from BP Deepwater Horizon? Have the BP Deepwater Horizon lessons being implemented both at the federal level and the state level?
And those are just a few of the questions to think about as crews continue to clean along with the Pacific coastline.