California Oil Spill 2015

By Author: Sherry Roberts
Total Articles: 153

Introduction
California oil spill happened on 19th May 2015. It occurred north of Refugio State Beach in the county of Santa Barbara. The oil spill originated from a pipeline that was owned and operated by Plains All American Pipeline. Plains All American Pipeline is a public trader in the oil pipeline transportation, marketing, and storage. The company storage is in the United States while liquefied petroleum gas business is in Canada. Natural gas storage is in Louisiana and Michigan. The company’s headquarters are in Houston in the State of Texas.
The Plains All American Pipeline moves crude oil from Exxon Mobil receiving plant along to another pipeline. The receiving pipeline then transports the oil further into the land. The pipeline leaked up to 101,000 United States gallons equivalent of 2,400 barrels. The oil spilled to a gully and flowed to the waters through a highway drainage culvert. There were close to 21,000 United States gallons (500 barrels) of oil that reached the waters.
The spill affected most of the Gaviota coastline. Recreation and cattle grazing is the primary land uses in the coastline. The same area has parks and other several other several preservation areas. One day later, Refugio State Beach and El Capitan State Beach were closed. A state of emergency was declared to show the magnitude of the disaster. The process of recovery and clean up was a collaborated effort by the state and volunteers. On 20th May 2015 6% of the oil had been recovered and by the time it was 8th June 2015 44% of the oil spill was cleaned.
All Plains American Pipeline company before and after oil spillage
According to Emergency Management of Santa Barbara County Office, California oil spill was caused by an underground pipe that ruptured. Due to that, there were changes that were made to prevent such a scenario from ever happening. The changes enacted were collaboration with the Oil Company and state federal office.
Before the California Oil Spill of 2015, the company’s speed of response was very low. It is the reason they were not able to minimize that large amount of oil from spilling. The company has since built a leading capability in oil spills prevention. They have also enhanced their capacity in readiness to respond in case such a disaster might happen. To maintain their industry-leading capability, they regularly test their plans and disaster preparedness. Besides that, the company takes in a large scale collaborated exercise with other partners in the industry, state agencies, and oil spill experts (Lazo, 2015)
The company’s oil spill prevention capability has seen tremendous changes. Their capability now includes multiple redundancies. When any of their systems fail, a backup system is meant to take over immediately. This immediate response prevents loss of control. In their drilling operations and processes, they have a quick response programme. It is a complex programme that consists of a dedicated on-site fleet, response vessels and an emergency response team. In the event that oil spill will occur, the company has come up with technological developments that have abilities to track and clean oil from ice.
All Plains American Pipeline is a leading member of the Joint Industry Programme on Arctic Spill Research. It was established by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers in 2012. The programme seeks to bring oil spill response experts together for enhancing development and operations in the oil industry. The programme has invested millions of dollars in an attempt to improve response technologies. The company is a beneficiary of the research conducted by the body. The recommendations and findings will enhance its preparedness to such disaster in the future.
The company has advanced it's ready to respond programme. The company has deployed a system to respond to the potential oil spill, whether onshore of offshore. There is qualified personnel who conduct training every day.
Changes made during the recovery
California Oil Spill brought both good and bad in the society. The social impact of the spill got witnessed during the process of recovery. One such change is the formation of society rights advancement groups. Their primary objective was protecting the rights of those who had been adversely affected by the spill. The groups advocated for their compensations and pressured the company to enhance its spill prevention measures in future (Chiang & Crane, 2010)

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at Melda Research in custom writing services services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order for a custom research paper from writing services online services.