June 12, 2015 – Line 901 Incident Update

PLAINS LINE 901 INCIDENT RESPONSE UPDATE FOR JUNE 11, 2015

(Effective Today, June 12, 2015, Plains will begin providing updates on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with each report containing information since the prior report.)

Plains All American Pipeline provided the following update as cleanup operations continued near Goleta, Calif.  This update is for Thursday, June 11, 2015, and is attributable to Patrick Hodgins, senior director, Safety & Security, Plains All American Pipeline, who is serving as the Plains Incident Commander and its representative within Unified Command.

Plains deeply regrets that this unfortunate accidental release occurred, and we are sorry for the resulting impact to the environment and wildlife, as well as for any disruption caused to residents and visitors. Plains is committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

Nearly 1,100 people worked on the response across the five work zones and in the Incident Command Post.  More than 950 people were in the field, and about 125 people, including federal, state and local agency partners, were managing the operations in the command center.

The following is an update on activity in the work zones for Thursday, June 11.

Water

  • Natural seep oil has been observed from scheduled NOAA over-flights. This area is prone to natural oil seepage, and the environmental unit is assessing possible sources and testing samples to distinguish natural seepage from the oil spilled from this response.
  • Three vessels and about 5,750 feet of booms were deployed to capture any sheen and to protect the shore.
  • Nearly all the remaining visible pipeline oil remains co-mingled with the rock and cobble. As the tides ebb and flow, we continue to maintain teams on the beach to clean the rocks and cobble as this happens.

Beaches

  • Four Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) teams – made up of federal, state and third-party scientists trained in assessing shoreline oiling and determining appropriate cleanup methods – conducted their regular shoreline cleanup assessments to direct the deployment of work crews according to cleanup objectives, which were pre-determined by Unified Command for this stage of the recovery efforts.
  • Approximately 750 workers contributed to beach cleanup activities. Work crews collected lightly oiled seaweed and kelp from the shoreline as well as manually cleaned oil from the rocks and cobble.
  • SCAT teams have determined that 85% of the affected shoreline has met the end-point cleanup objectives for this stage of the recovery efforts.  Clean areas will continue to be monitored to determine whether additional work might be necessary.

Bluffs

  • In the area west of the southbound 101, work crews continued making progress excavating the oiled soil.

Culvert

  • We have completed the initial cleanup and are continuing to monitor the area to determine whether additional work is necessary.

Release Site

  • As soon as the remaining activities conclude and testing confirms the oil has been removed from the soil in the area, we will cover the exposed section of pipe with clean soil.

Claims

  • For those who have questions or who would like to submit a claim, please call
    866-753-3619. We are actively addressing claims as they are received.

For more information, please visit www.plainsline901response.com.

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