Orange County Oil Spill Lawsuit

On October 2, 2021, up to 131,000 gallons of oil leaked from an offshore rig run by Amplify Energy. The Coast Guard is investigating whether the spill was caused by a dropped anchor from a cargo ship striking a pipeline running between the rig and the coast.

According to official estimates, the Huntington Beach oil spill totaled a maximum of up to 3,000 barrels — or 131,000 gallons — of oil. It was not as significant as previous oil spills, though the harm was significant.

The largest oil spill in California state history occurred off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969, when as many as 100,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled over the course of 10 days — providing the inspiration for the annual Earth Day holiday.

Huntington State Beach was shut down in the immediate aftermath of the spill, with the oil slick impacting a nearly six-mile stretch from the Huntington Beach pier to the Balboa Pier. The Santa Ana River jetty to the Huntington Beach Pier is also closed, and the oil infiltrated the Talbert Marshlands.

Officials in Newport Beach asked people not to enter the water on October 3, but stopped short of closing the ocean to the public. In Laguna Beach, the city closed beaches to the public at 9 p.m. on October 3. At some point, all beaches and fisheries from Huntington Beach to Dana Point Harbor were closed — some for more than a week.

While the platform the spill originated from was run by Amplify Energy, a company that recently emerged from bankruptcy and has a history of federal violations and non-compliance, the Coast Guard is investigating whether the spill was caused by a cargo ship dropping anchor over a pipeline running from the Amplify rig to the shore.

Due to the pandemic, a backlog of container ships are crowding the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Orange County, and some have been forced to drop anchor outside of designated anchorage points mapped out by the Marine Exchange of Southern California. However, captains of these ships have electronic charts showing all known underwater hazards to avoid, including powerlines, internet cables, and pipelines.

The fishing industry is one of the most heavily impacted by oil spills. After the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf Coast, much of the fish and seafood in the area failed to recover. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries said the seafood harvest was still 50% lower than pre-spill levels even 10 years after the cleanup.

In all, the BP oil spill cut somewhere between $94.7 million and $1.6 million off the valuation of the commercial fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico, and cost the economy there as many as 9,000 jobs in the first eight months, according to a 2020 study by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

The shipping and tourism industries could also be heavily impacted by the Huntington Beach oil spill, depending on how long cleanup efforts take and beaches are closed. Cargo ships regularly traverse the area covered by the spread of the oil spill, and popular Orange County beach destinations could take years to fully recover.

Consequences of oil spills can last for decades. In cases where oil has spilled in salt marshes or mangrove swamps, the effects can last longer, but in most cases environmental recovery is mostly completed in less than 10 years. With the Huntington Beach oil spill, officials have said that toxicity should fade fairly quickly, with the most concerning period passing in the immediate hours and days following the spill.