![]() ![]() Much like an air traffic control center, the Marine Exchange organizes the flow of vessels coming in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Container ships and oil tankers, waiting for a berth, are assigned a place to anchor in the roadstead off Long Beach and Huntington Harbor.Īn overflow section off Huntington Beach, located between a series of oil platforms, was also being used, but ships have not been assigned to that area since the oil spill. Louttit describes a methodical and well-orchestrated movement of ships in their approach to Southern California. Southern California's marine shelf, with its steep drop-off, keeps vessels close to shore.įederal regulators said the location of the spill may be about five miles offshore, where the water is about 98 feet deep. Ships are positioned in water ranging in depth from 60 feet to 210 feet, which is the draft of the largest vessel, an oil tanker, and the maximum amount of anchor chain carried by ships. The sites are away from pipelines, sewage outfalls and underwater communication lines that snake across the ocean floor. ![]() On Friday afternoon, nearly 55 of those sites were occupied, a number that has remained consistent over the last few months. Ships entering the harbor can be sent to one of 60 locations, identified by the Coast Guard and Marine Exchange, to safely drop their anchors, said Louttit. "The anchorages are preplanned, and standards of care for anchoring the ships are always in place," he said. The backup has been pronounced, said Louttit, but he is reluctant to call it a traffic jam. Last month, the Marine Exchange reported the arrival of 414 vessels to the ports, compared with 344 in 2020. ![]() While an accident like this would be unusual, given the history of ships safely anchoring in the harbors, traffic has dramatically increased since July. Some wonder whether the damage to the pipeline took place recently or if it happened months ago, and corrosion finally opened a rupture.ĭespite high temperatures Friday, winds were light, and the sky was clear. "We haven't had that much wind in months." "We haven't had one drag since last winter," he said. Anchor dragging is rare, he added, and typically occurs in winds over 35 knots. Louttit said anchors typically weigh 30 tons and can bury themselves up to 10 feet in offshore sediment. "The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bowstring," he said. Martyn Willsher, president and chief executive of the pipeline operator's parent, Amplify Energy Corp., described the force as pulling the pipe in an almost "semicircle." There were multiple large cargo vessels in the immediate area of the leak before the oil was spotted.Ī final determination for the cause of the spill may take months, but Coast Guard investigators have come up with no other explanation, federal sources said. The displacement, federal sources said, is best explained by a ship's anchor dragging across the ocean floor and hooking into the pipeline. On Tuesday, diver reports and footage from remotely operated submarines showed that a 4,000-foot section of a nearly 18-mile oil pipeline had been displaced approximately 105 feet and had a 13-inch split along its length, according to the Joint Unified Command, which is overseeing the investigation. ![]() Coast Guard is looking at the possibility that the crush of shipping traffic came into violent contact with this network of undersea infrastructure and triggered a spill that sent an estimated 144,000 gallons of oil into the ocean. The combination of oil production and global shipping in the same coastal area is now at the center of an investigation into the cause of a massive oil spill that sent crude onto Orange County beaches and sensitive wetland areas. With Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors at near capacity, container ships and oil tankers have had to drop massive anchors in designated sites that place them near oil platforms and an undersea infrastructure of oil lines, sewage treatment pipes and communications equipment. Container ship traffic has increased fivefold since 2019, and supply chains, affected by production slowdowns and high consumer demand related to the pandemic, are in an unprecedented bottleneck. "I describe it as 'status quo,'" said Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, the agency that directs local maritime traffic.īut the status quo, compared to previous years, was extraordinary, given the heavy concentration of ships waiting offshore to deliver cargo. ![]()
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