June 17, 2015 – Plains Line 901 Incident Response Update

Plains All American Pipeline provided the following update as cleanup operations continued near Goleta, Calif.  This update is for the work period from Monday, June 15, through Tuesday, June 16, 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.

On both Monday and Tuesday, the total number of people working per day on the response was about 850 across the five work zones and in the Incident Command Post.  This included approximately 740 people per day in the field, and about 110 people per day managing operations in the command center, including federal, state and local agency partners.

The following is an update on activity in the work zones during Monday and Tuesday:

Water

  • All visible pipeline oil has been removed from the water.  Accordingly, the work over the two day work period was primarily focused on removing boom that had been deployed to protect the shoreline.  200 feet of boom will be maintained to protect areas of cultural significance.
  • Water column samples continue to be taken on a regular basis.  Sampling for finfish and shellfish is being conducted in accordance with the established procedure for reopening fisheries.

Beaches

  • Three Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) teams on Monday – and one on Tuesday – 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.  The SCAT teams are made up of federal, state and third-party scientists trained in assessing shoreline oiling and determining appropriate cleanup methods.
  • Over the course of the two-day work period, 600-650 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 91% 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 south 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.

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

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