File – File on Thursday, October 7, 2021 In the photo, a worker in a diving suit is cleaning a contaminated beach in Corona del Mar after an oil spill on Newport Beach, California. Anxious relations with California’s oil industry are being retested by the latest spills. Dirty beaches and kill birds and fish off Orange County. (AP Photo / Ringo HW Chiu, file)
Investigators believe that a 1,200-foot (366-meter) freighter dragging an anchor in rough waters captured an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the ocean floor.
A team of federal agents trying to determine the cause of the spill registered in Panama just hours after the arrival of a giant vessel this weekend from the port of Long Beach, the same area where the spill was discovered in early October. I got on the MSC DANIT that was done.
Coast Guard Lieutenant Sondra Kay Nene said he believed that during his last visit to the ship during the January storm, he believed that the anchor had dragged an unknown distance before colliding with a 16-inch (40 cm) steel pipe. rice field.
The impact would have knocked out a one-inch-thick concrete casing from the pipe, pulled it over 100 feet (30 meters), and bent it, but wouldn’t break the line, Nene said.
It’s still unclear if the impact caused a leak in October, if the line later hit something else, or if it failed due to an existing problem, Nene said.
“We are still considering multiple ships and scenarios,” she said.
It is estimated that Saturday’s Coast Guard designated owners and operators as interested parties in investigating the spill, releasing approximately 25,000 gallons (94,635 liters) of crude oil into the water and killing birds, fish and mammals. I am.
An accident just a few miles from Huntington Beach in Los Angeles polluted the beaches and wetlands and temporarily closed them for cleaning work. Not as bad as initially feared, the debate over offshore drilling in the federal waters of the Pacific Ocean, where hundreds of miles of pipelines were installed decades ago, has rekindled.
DANIT’s operator, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company, is headquartered in Switzerland and has a fleet of 600 ships and more than 100,000 workers, the company said.
MSC personnel did not immediately respond to the email message asking for comment. A security guard who called the company’s headquarters in Geneva said it was closed until Monday.
Shipowners identified as Dorderas Finance Corporation by the Coast Guard were not asked for comment.
According to the Maritime Traffic Surveillance Website, DANIT arrived at Long Beach this weekend after a voyage from China.
Investigation into the cause of the spill could lead to criminal accusations or civil penalties, but has not yet been announced and Kneen said the investigation could last for months.
According to the Coast Guard, MSC and Dordera lawyers have the opportunity to examine and cross-examine government witnesses in the case and also call their own witnesses. The investigation also includes the National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies.
Nene didn’t say if any damage was found on DANIT’s anchors after a team of at least five investigators boarded the ship most of Saturday.
At least the other two vessels were previously boarded by the captain, officers, engineers, and investigators investigating the logs held by the VCR. This is the so-called black box of an airplane.
Houston-based owner of the damaged pipeline, Amplify Energy, thanked the Coast Guard for continuing to work on the incident in response to its new focus on DANIT.
Amplify personnel have not directly answered questions about alarms indicating potential pipeline problems and the one-hour delay before the company reports a leak to federal authorities.
Coast Guard: A 1,200-foot Ship Drags California’s Oil Pipeline | WGN Radio 720
Source link Coast Guard: A 1,200-foot Ship Drags California’s Oil Pipeline | WGN Radio 720
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