Huntington Beach Mayor on the Recent Oil Spill

MAYOR KIM CARR (D-CA), HUNTINGTON BEACH: So the cleanup efforts are ongoing right now. We just received notice, that oil did land at Bolsa Chica State Beach, so that beach is now closed. However, north of Bolsa Chica, which is Sunset Beach — and that’s still part of Huntington Beach — that is open. The good news is that the City of Huntington Beach took some very proactive measures to mitigate the flow of oil into our wetlands. So that’s the good news, is that we jumped on this as soon as we heard that there was oil approaching our shores. We didn’t wait for the Coast Guard. We got on it and we were able to lay down over 2,000 feet of boom to protect our wetlands and some of our most sensitive areas. And there are crews right now that are cleaning up the Huntington State Beach and then also our City Beach, while it is open, we are closed from the lifeguard towers to the water. So it’s a dynamic situation. I can’t say that we’re out of the woods yet. But I’m really confident that we will be able to clean this up and restore our beaches and our wetlands to where they were before, based on all of the preventive measures we took right at the beginning.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA: Have you been able to confirm the cause of this? Was it a ship anchor that actually rammed into the oil pipeline that caused this?

CARR: So the U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency on this. And it is yet to be determined as to what has actually caused this pipeline to rupture. That was the theory that was thrown out yesterday. And obviously we are very interested in the cause of it as well, because we fully respect the responsible party, which is Amplify Energy, to be held accountable and to really get to the bottom of all of this because, for us, it’s imperative that we know exactly why this happened and to make sure that this never happens again.

GOLODRYGA: You’ve been talking about all the work done in trying to avoid further damage and the cleanup efforts now. But there had been reports that there had been a smell in the area and there had been reports of an oil sheen some 12 hours before Amplify Energy actually alerted authorities. Obviously you know that a lot could have been done within those 12 hours.

CARR: Absolutely.

GOLODRYGA: Why the delay?

CARR: And that’s part of the investigation. And so, we are frustrated with that development as well. And I can tell you, when we were first alerted about this spill, it was Saturday morning at 9 o’clock, when we received a message from the Coast Guard, saying, hey, there’s this potential spill; really nothing to worry about. And then as this day sort of progressed it was, well, this spill has the potential to hit your shore.