Orange County Oil Spill Update
We remain committed to providing you with the most up-to-date and accurate information about the Orange County Oil Spill.
We know the oil spill has impacted our local business community. To free up access to disaster loan funds for businesses, we need businesses to demonstrate that they have been impacted during the oil spill. Please take a quick moment to fill out & the Economic Injury Worksheet. Businesses can return them to EOCLiaison@ocsheriff.gov.
Unified Command reported yesterday that they have not observed any free floating oil in recent days. On Thursday, I joined the Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Teams in their efforts to recover tarballs from the shores of Crystal Cove. Right now, the oil is almost exclusively in the form of tarballs that are continuously monitored and collected. A Long Term Monitoring and Maintenance Plan is also being developed to address the anticipated tarballs that will continue to show up in the coming weeks. We are truly grateful for hard work and long hours the cleanup teams have dedicated to cleaning up our beaches.
We are eager to report the full reopening of beaches across Laguna Beach! This means that all beaches in Orange County are open for shoreline and water access.
On Monday, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon appointed me to chair the Select Committee on the Orange County Oil Spill (VIDEO). The committee will focus on getting answers to the many questions surrounding this disaster, the lessons we must learn and the changes we must implement to ensure that this does not happen again on our watch.
Earlier this week, I was joined by UCI Professor, Dr. Matthew Bracken, for a Town Hall to answer all of the questions you submitted. Visit my Facebook page to watch and reply to this email if you have further issues for us to address.
Last week, I attended a briefing and press conference led by the investigatory team of the Orange County Oil Spill. Most importantly, we know that the responsible party will pay for the damages incurred by this spill. Investigators suspect that an anchor initially hit the pipeline, possibly up to several months to a year ago. Additional contacts on the pipeline likely followed in the months ahead, resulting in the spill. A number of investigations will be underway led by federal and state agencies. I will remain engaged to ensure we hold the responsible party accountable.
Help for Residents & Businesses
- Claims Hotline: (866) 985-8366
- Boat Decontamination: (866) 985-8366 to schedule cleaning
- Unified Command: socalspillresponse.com
Updates as of October 15, 12:00 p.m.:
Clean-Up
- All Orange County boom with exception of Talbert marsh are scheduled to be removed or actively being removed*
- 5544 gallons of oil recovered
- 452,500 lbs of oily debris removed in total
- 1478 shoreline clean-up personnel
*Boom is primarily intended for collecting free floating oil. No free floating oil has been observed on the water for the past several days. It is important for boom to be removed when there is no longer free floating oil to be collected as to not cause further disturbance to wildlife.
How You Can Help: If you encounter impacted animals, call the Oil Wildlife - Care Network Hotline, (877) 823-6926. To report tarballs, email tarballreports@wildlife.ca.gov. If you would like to volunteer for a future cleanup, please sign up here to be notified: https://a74.asmdc.org/orange-county-oil-spill-updates-volunteer-sign
Best wishes to all,
