NASA Satellite View California Oil Spill
Local governments and the media are scrambling to keep up with evidence that the Orange County oil spill has spread as far south as Del Mar and other San Diego County beaches.
Tar balls have been spotted at Oceanside, Carlsbad, Del Mar and Encinitas.
Volunteers with the Southern California oil spill response are now working on North County San Diego beaches, officials said Thursday.
San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said:
“Last night, lifeguards with both the cities of Oceanside and Carlsbad observed tar balls on their beaches. And, while it is not impossible for this to occur naturally, the quantity is highly unusual and very likely that these tar balls are, in fact, the result of the oil spill. We don’t know for certain, yet.”
Fletcher said they requested the oil spill’s Unified Command to deploy Shoreline Assessment Teams to sample and test the tar balls. The Unified Command also has staff on hand to help with cleanup, if needed. Fletcher said in addition to Oceanside and Carlsbad, there have been reports of tar balls on beaches in Del Mar and Encinitas, which will also be investigated.
“If the tar balls are tied back to the oil spill, at that point the county would declare a local state of emergency to better access state and federal funds.”
In response, San Diego County’s Office of Emergency Services said they will activate their emergency operations center to protect the region from the oil spill. Activating the operations center means there will be an ongoing coordinated response for all local jurisdictions, state and federal agencies, the U.S.Coast Guard and more to monitor and share information, Fletcher said.
“Oceanside is closely monitoring the impacts on our beaches, Harbor, and on wildlife,” an spokeswoman told NBC 7 San Diego. “Our Emergency Operations Center is activated and continually working with commanding agencies and have response plans in place for any potential impacts.” 7SanDiego
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Good article pointing out why the coastline will NEVER heal, why it’s irreparable, why it just continues to degrade year by year due to a never-ending stream of death coatings.
The first part of the article is what deals with this leak along with maps of other Cali ‘incidents’ between 1986-2021 which of course does NOT include the 1969 Santa Barbara monster blow-out.
The rest of Roaming Charges details more fossil fuel madness, climate, maps, etc etc. The first ever Cyclone to enter the Persian Gulf, Shaheen, just dumped five years worth of rain on Oman in THREE DAYS. The article will not leave you feeling upbeat.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/08/roaming-charges-29/
sealintheSelkirks
I was having lunch yesterday with a friend who was there in Santa Barbara for the original “big dump”. She said the oil smell was strong enough that it made people nauseous, and the efforts to save the oil soaked birds and sea life were heroic and heart-breaking. Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to approve new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
I was on the beach in Del Mar a month ago and there were tar balls on the beach. They were there long before the oil spill. Not sure what they were from but they were there.
There are naturally occurring tarballs that wash up on the beach; Indigenous peoples even used them to aid them in molding substances together. They’re different from the caca that’s now washing up from Huntington Beach to Del Mar now.
The County is still testing said tar balls to determine if they ARE different from normally occurring seepage; no results have been released as of this date.