LOS ANGELES — California and federal officials had strong indications of oil on the water off the Huntington Beach coast Friday evening, records reviewed by The Times show, more than 10 hours before the operator of an oil platform reported it to authorities.
The documents raise more questions about how the massive leak was handled in its first hours. Residents have complained about the time it took to alert the public about the scope of the catastrophe and that initial communications by government agencies said the situation was under control and that oil would not reach land.
The Office of Spill Prevention and Response, a division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife charged with handling such emergencies, said in a report obtained by The Times that it was first notified of an “observed sheen in federal waters several miles off the coast of Huntington Beach” Friday at 10:22 p.m., though the source and volume were unknown. Additional notifications were received into Saturday morning, according to the report.
Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the Office of Emergency Services, which acts as a clearinghouse for spill reports, said his agency was notified by Amplify Energy — the company that owns the aging infrastructure that spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Orange County — at 8:55 a.m. Saturday that a pipeline leak had occurred that morning at about 2:30 a.m.
Martyn Willsher, Amplify’s chief executive, said in a Monday press conference that the company did not know about the leak until Saturday. He said Amplify was unaware on Friday of reports from Orange County residents who reported smelling fuel that day.
“We were not aware of a leak Friday night,” Willsher said. “We were going during a line run Saturday morning which is when we detected the sheen.”
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating whether the oil company failed to notice a drop of pressure in the pipeline, resulting in a delayed response that allowed oil to flow for hours unfettered, a high-ranking federal official told The Times on Monday. That investigation is being handled as a potential negligence issue by Coast Guard criminal investigators, who operate separately from officials involved in the cleanup, the federal official said.
He said Amplify was unaware on Friday of reports from Orange County residents who reported smelling fuel that day. He said the company notified the Coast Guard shortly after the oil was spotted Saturday morning.
“We — the boat — noticed the sheen, immediately contacted the platforms, and the platforms instantaneously started the incident plan. … We instantly, you know, started notifying all the relevant agencies and getting the incident plan in place. It was within that 30 minutes-or-so timeframe,” Willsher said.
Elected officials were not notified until Saturday afternoon, according to an email obtained by The Times. “I want a full investigation. And I want to hold people accountable for this incident,” said Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen, whose district has been hit with oil on its beaches. “I also would like to have been notified sooner, if it was known [earlier]. ... Quite frankly these kinds of incidents should have been made known to us before they were made public because our constituents will have questions.”
The new timeline is likely to heighten concerns about how the company and officials handled the first day of the crisis. Many residents on the coast complained about smelling oil Friday night.
Shortly after noon, the Coast Guard announced on Twitter that it was responding to a large oil slick. Then, late Saturday afternoon, a Coast Guard official told The Times: “We were alerted quickly. We really believe we will keep this to a small contained incident.”
The city of Newport Beach sent out a tweet around that time saying the spill should dissipate through wind, sun and wave action and was not expected to come ashore. But by Saturday night, oil was hitting the coast and polluting environmentally sensitive wetlands as well as the beach. The plume was moving south toward Laguna Beach on Monday.
