Local crews head to Santa Barbara coastline to help with oil spill

As crews continues to skim and vacuum oil out of the ocean along the Santa Barbara coastline, a state of emergency declared by Gov. Jerry Brown Wednesday should make more resources available to help with clean up, according to state officials.

The pipeline rupture Tuesday morning northwest of Santa Barbara spewed more than 100,000 gallons of oil and as much as 21,000 was sent into the Pacific Ocean near Refugio State Beach.

In the proclamation, Brown said in part:

“This emergency proclamation cuts red tape and helps the state quickly mobilize all available resources. We will do everything necessary to protect California’s coastline.”

The pipeline is owned by Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline LP. Federal regulators are now investigating what caused it to burst. Brown said the spill prompted the closure of beaches in the area and created a big impact on fishing and shellfish.

The oil slick now stretches for nine miles. Containment vessels are trying to stop it from spreading. Dozens of hand crews worked the beaches bagging up oil contaminated sand.

Animal experts said they’re concerned whales are swimming into the slick and crews are already trying to help birds coated in oil. So far crews have rescued five brown pelicans. A juvenile sea lion covered in oil was also rescued and transferred to Sea World for treatment and rehabilitation.

Clean up crews are getting some help from people in Santa Cruz County.

Two staff members from the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife location in Santa Cruz are already in Santa Barbara, as the rest of the team prepares to take in any oiled sea otters that may be in trouble.

On Wednesday, NewsChannel 5 got a look at one of many rooms designed specifically to help oiled sea otters. No matter where the spill happens in the state, the otter would go to the Santa Cruz Wildlife Center for treatment. As the situation develops in Santa Barbara, the highly-trained team is getting ready.

“A lot of times, oiled wildlife don’t come in until several days into the spill,” Laird Henkel said, a senior environmental scientist with the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

Henkel said their research has shown a group of otters hangs out just west of the spill area. He’s hoping they won’t swim into it the oil that as it spreads. If they do, the otters would be brought here, examined, and then cleaned with water and dawn dish soap. Then they would come here, to the center’s pool yard area — where the sea otters would spend a few weeks recovering before heading back out to the ocean.”

Henkel said oil can be a life or death situation for sea otters:

“Unlike other sea mammals, sea otters use their fur to keep warm. And that really dense fur, which is the densest fur on any mammal, when it gets oiled, it ruins their capability to stay warm,” Henkel said.

But California sea otters are in good hands as this center is just one of many places ready to help.

“We work with partners in the oiled wildlife care network, that include the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Marine Mammal Center, and U.C. Santa Cruz,” Henkel said.

Those agencies are all working together to form the “Oiled Wildlife Care Network,” keep mammals out of harm’s way. Some oiled birds have turned up in this spill and those birds will be treated at a facility in Southern California.

So far there have not been any reports of any oiled mammals. When it comes to sea otters, oil can be a life or death situation. Scientists said it could be days before we really know the impact of this spill.