California declares state of emergency in response to massive oil spill
CBSN
California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for Orange County in response to a massive oil spill near Huntington Beach over the weekend. The county's board of supervisors also declared a local emergency on Tuesday.
An offshore oil rig leaked at least 126,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend - it is considered the largest oil spill the area has ever seen. The cause of the spill is under investigation and clean-up efforts have been led by several state and local agencies.
For nearly 12 hours, the pipeline was spewing oil into the ocean before any action was taken to stop it. The Coast Guard received reports of an "unknown sheen" on the water late Friday night but said it didn't have enough information to deploy boats. Amplify Energy, which operates the pipeline, didn't report the leak until Saturday morning.
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