From: KCET
May 21, 2015 9:25 AM
Eared
grebe slicked during the 2007 Cosco Busan spill in San Francisco Bay,
another spill too small to make this list. | Photo: Chris Clarke
Santa Barbara County is reeling this week from a
pipeline accident that spilled an estimated 105,000 gallons of crude oil
near Refugio State Beach, much of which has reached the ocean. Beaches
have been fouled along a nine-mile stretch of coastline, with untold
damage to one of the most ecologically important pieces of the
California landscape.
And, sadly, it's nothing unusual. Though the estimate of how much oil
flowed out of the pipeline operated by Plains All American may rise,
and the extent of the slick may spread despite efforts to contain it,
spills of crude oil and the products we make from it are an everyday
occurrence in California.
In fact, at current estimates of the Refugio Oil Spill's size and
extent, this disaster -- as bad as it is -- doesn't even come close to
being the worst in California's history. It doesn't even make the top
five.
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