June 22, 2015 – Plains Line 901 Incident Response Update

Plains All American Pipeline provided the following update as cleanup operations continued near Goleta, Calif.  This update is for the work period from Friday, June 19, through Sunday, June 21, 2015, and is attributable to Patrick Hodgins, senior director, Safety & Security, Plains All American Pipeline.

Plains deeply regrets that this unfortunate accidental release occurred, and we are sorry for the resulting impact to the environment and wildlife, as well as for any disruption caused to residents and visitors. Plains is committed to doing everything in our power to make this right.

The total number of people working on the response across the five work zones and in the Incident Command Post over the three-day period ranged from around 940 to nearly 1,000.  This included between 835 to 890 people working in the field, and about 105 to 110 people, including federal, state and local agency partners, managing operations in the command center.

The following is an update on activity in the work zones:

Water

  • As all visible pipeline oil has been removed from the water, cleanup operations on the water have been suspended, and the temporary U. S. Coast Guard Safety Zone has been canceled.
  • The remaining 200 feet of boom was removed from the water.
  • Monitoring will be conducted on a periodic basis to determine whether additional activities are warranted.

Beaches

  • Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) experts conducted shoreline cleanup assessments to direct the deployment of work crews.  The SCAT teams are made up of federal, state and third-party scientists trained in assessing shoreline oiling and determining appropriate cleanup methods.
  • About 600 workers contributed to beach cleanup activities each day. Work crews collected lightly oiled seaweed and kelp from the shoreline as well as manually cleaned oil from the rocks and cobble.
  • SCAT teams have determined that 91% of the affected shoreline has met the end-point cleanup objectives determined by Unified Command for this stage of the recovery efforts.  Clean areas will continue to be monitored to determine whether additional work might be necessary.
  • El Capitan State Beach is scheduled to reopen on Friday, June 26th.

Bluffs

  • In the area south of the southbound 101, work crews completed the initial removal of oiled soil.
  • Unified Command is considering the plan to backfill and remediate the area.

Culvert

  • Initial cleanup has been completed.  Monitoring is in place to determine whether additional work is necessary.

Release Site

  • As soon as the remaining activities conclude and testing confirms the oil has been removed from the soil in the area, the exposed section of pipe will be covered with clean soil.

Claims

  • For those who have questions or who would like to submit a claim, please call
    866-753-3619. We are actively addressing claims as they are received.

For more information, please visit www.plainsline901response.com.

(Note: Effective June 22, 2015, Plains began providing updates weekly on Monday, with each report containing information since the prior report.)

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