The Santa Barbara oil spill occurred in January and February 1969 in the Santa Barbara Channel,

near the city of Santa Barbara in Southern California. It was the largest oil spill in United States
waters at the time, and now ranks third after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon and 1989 Exxon
Valdez spills. It remains the largest oil spill to have occurred in the waters off California.
The source of the spill was a blow-out on January 28, 1969, 6 miles (10 km) from the coast on Union
Oil's Platform A in the Dos Cuadras Offshore Oil Field. Within a ten-day period, an estimated 80,000
to 100,000 barrels (13,000 to 16,000 m3)[1] of crude oil spilled into the Channel and onto the beaches
of Santa Barbara County in Southern California, fouling the coastline from Goleta to Ventura as well
as the northern shores of the four northern Channel Islands. The spill had a significant impact on
marine life in the Channel, killing an estimated 3,500 sea birds,[2] as well as marine animals such as
dolphins, elephant seals, and sea lions. The public outrage engendered by the spill, which received
prominent media coverage in the United States, resulted in numerous pieces of environmental
legislation within the next several years, legislation that forms the legal and regulatory framework for
the modern environmental movement in the U.S.[3][4][5][6]

Contents
[hide]

1Background
2Oil spill
o 2.1Blowout on Platform A
o 2.2Expansion of the spill
o 2.3Media coverage and public response
o 2.4Continued spill
o 2.5President Nixon's visit; further oil development
3Consequences
o 3.1Environmental effects
o 3.2Economic effects
o 3.3Policy consequences
o 3.4Moratoria and bans on offshore leasing and drilling
o 3.5Earth Day
4Present day
5See also
6References
7Further reading
8External links

Background[edit]
Because of the abundance of oil in the thick sedimentary rock layers beneath the Santa Barbara
Channel, the region has been an attractive resource for the petroleum industry for more than a
hundred years. The southern coast of Santa Barbara County was the location of the world's first
offshore oil drilling, which took place from piers at the Summerland Oil Field in 1896, just 6 miles
(10 km) from the spill site.[7][8] An economic boom accompanied the development of the Summerland
field, which transformed the spiritualist community of Summerland into an oil town in just a few
years.[9]
Oil development in the Channel and adjacent coastline was controversial even from the earliest
days, as by the late 19th century the city was beginning to establish itself as a health resort and
tourist destination with dramatic natural scenery, unspoiled beaches, and a perfect climate. In the
late 1890s, when the Summerland field began to expand much closer to the city of Santa Barbara, a
crowd of midnight vigilantes headed by local newspaper publisher Reginald Fernald tore down one
of the more unsightly rigs erected on Miramar Beach itself (in 2010 the location of a luxury
hotel).[10] In 1927, the discovery of oil west of Santa Barbara led to the development of Ellwood Oil
Field. This caused the city to be bracketed on east and west with oil fields, the new one a bonanza
and the depleted Summerland field a largely abandoned, blighted waste.[11] In 1929, the Mesa Oil
Field was discovered within the city itself, on the blufftop adjacent to present-day Santa Barbara City
College. Residential construction in the vicinity of the Mesa field halted, as oil presented easier and
faster money to the land developers. Oil derricks sprouted on the hilltop within easy view of the
harbor, on narrow town lots intended originally for houses. While local protests were vocal, they
failed to shut down the oil development, as there was a city ordinance at the time specifically
allowing drilling on the Mesa. The oil derricks only went away when production on the small Mesa
field abruptly declined and ended in the late 1930s.[12][13]
Improved technology gradually allowed drilling farther and farther from shore, and by the middle of
the 20th century drilling was being carried out near Seal Beach, Long Beach, and in other areas on
the Southern California coast from man-made islands built in shallow water close to shore. Nearer to
the site of the oil spill, the first drilling island was built in 1958 by Richfield Oil Company. Named
Richfield Island, now Rincon Island, it was constructed in 45 feet (14 m) of water near Punta Gorda,
between Carpinteria and Ventura, to exploit the offshore portion of the Rincon Oil Field; this island,
now owned by Greka Energy, remains in active production.
In the Santa Barbara Channel, geologists realized that the anticlinal trend which held the extremely
productive Rincon and Ventura Oil Fields did not end at the shoreline, but extended underneath the
Channel. Prospectors for oil sought ways to drill in deeper water. Seismic testing under the Channel
began shortly after the Second World War, in an attempt to locate the suspected petroleum
reservoirs deep underneath the ocean floor. The testing was noisy and disruptive; explosions rattled
windows, cracked plaster, and filled the beaches with dead fish; local citizens as well as the Santa
Barbara News-Press vocally opposed the practice, which continued nonetheless, but after a delay
and under tighter controls. Yet the testing had revealed what the oil company geologists had
suspected, and the population feared: the probable presence of sizeable exploitable petroleum
reservoirs in relatively shallow water, approximately 200 feet (60 m) deep, within reach of developing
ocean-drilling technology.[14]
A series of legal and legislative actions, however, delayed actual oil platform construction and drilling
until the mid-1960s, as the Federal and State governments fought for ownership of submerged
lands. Congress passed the Submerged Lands Act in 1953, which granted to the states all lands
within 3 nautical miles (6 km) of shore, known as the tidelands. After two more years of wrangling
with state legislature, Santa Barbara arrived at a compromise with the oil companies, creating a no-
drilling zone in the Channel 16 miles (26 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) wide adjacent to the city of
Santa Barbara. However, several major oil fields were found within state waters on either side of this
zone, and the State granted leases in these fields beginning in 1957. Development of these
resources commenced, with the first offshore oil platform Hazel being built in 1957.[15][16]Platform
Hilda, adjacent to Hazel, was erected in 1960. Both platforms tapped into the Summerland Offshore
Oil Field, and were easily visible from Santa Barbara on a clear day. Platform Holly, in the offshore
portion of the Ellwood Oil Field about 15 miles (24 km) west of Santa Barbara, was emplaced in
1965.[17]
Development of leases in the federal waters was next. As the technology became available, and
after the seismic surveys of the Channel had revealed that the oil was probably there, the federal
government put the portions of the Santa Barbara Channel outside of the 3 miles
(5 km) tidelands limit up for lease. This was possible because a 1965 Supreme Court decision finally
settled the competing claims on the submerged lands outside of 3 miles (5 km) limit, giving them to
the federal government. The first lease sale took place on December 15, 1966, after a notice of the
impending sale in the Federal Register went unnoticed by local officials. A consortium of oil
companies, including Phillips, Continental, and Cities Service Oil Company, was awarded the first
lease after paying over $21 million for the rights to drill on approximately 3 square miles (8 km2) of
ocean floor in the Carpinteria Offshore Oil Field.[18] The rig the three companies emplaced Platform
Hogan was the first oil platform offshore of California in Federal waters. It became operational on
September 1, 1967.[19][20] On February 6, 1968, a total of 72 leases went up for bid. A partnership
between Union Oil, Gulf Oil, Texaco, and Mobil acquired the rights to Lease 241 in the Dos Cuadras
Offshore Oil Field. Their first rig on that lease, Platform A, went into position on September 14, 1968,
and commenced drilling.[19][20]
Local hostility to the oil industry had been growing during the period from 1966 to 1968, despite
assurances from the oil industry that it could carry out its operations safely. On June 7, 1968, 2,000
US gallons (8 m3) of crude oil spilled into the sea from Phillips' new Platform Hogan, in spite of the oil
company's assurances that such a thing would not happen, and the assurances of Stewart L. Udall,
the Secretary of the Department of the Interior; and in November, a local ballot referendum was
successful in preventing the construction of an onshore oil facility at Carpinteria.[21]

Oil spill[edit]
Blowout on Platform A[edit]

Aerial view of the spill from Platform A. After the well was plugged on the rig, the high-pressure oil and gas left
the well bore, ripping through the floor of the ocean itself 200 feet (61 m) down; this is causing the surface
disturbance to the left of the rig.

Platform A was positioned in 188 feet (57 m) of water, 5.8 miles (9 km) from the shore at
Summerland. It had 57 slots for wells from which it could drill directionally into the oil reservoir from
different angles.[20] At the time of the spill, it was one of twelve platforms already in the waters off
California, and one of two operated by Union Oil in the Dos Cuadras field. Four oil wells had already
been drilled from the new platform, though not yet put in production. Work on the fifth was under
way.[19]
On the morning of January 28, 1969, workers drilling the fifth well, A-21, reached its final depth of
3,479 feet (1,060 m), attaining this depth in only 14 days. Of this depth, only the top 239 feet (73 m)
had been fitted with a steel conductor casing; the rest was to be fitted with one once the drill bit was
out. After the workers pulled the drill bit out, with some difficulty, an enormous spout of oil, gas, and
drilling mud burst into the air into the rig, splattering the men with filth; several of them attempted to
screw a blowout-preventer onto the pipe, but against a pressure of over 1,000 pounds per square
inch (7 MPa), this proved to be impossible; all workers except for those engaged in the plugging
attempt were evacuated, due to the danger of explosion from the abundant natural gas blown from
the hole; finally, the workers tried the method of last resort, dropping the remaining drill pipe almost
0.5 miles (800 m) long into the hole, and then crushing the top of the well pipe from the sides with
a pair of "blind rams", enormous steel blocks slamming together with force sufficient to stop anything
from escaping from the well. It took thirteen minutes from the time of the initial blowout to the time
the blind rams were activated. Only then did the workers both on the rig and in boats nearby notice
the increase in bubbling at the ocean surface hundreds of feet from the rig. Plugging the well at the
top had failed to stop the blowout, which was now tearing through the ocean floor in several
places.[22]
Normally, an offshore well would have been built with at least 300 feet (91 m) of conductor casing,
as required by federal regulations at the time, as well as approximately 870 feet (270 m) of a
secondary, inner steel tube known as the surface casing. Both of these protective casings were
intended to prevent blowout of high-pressure gas out of the sides of the well bore into and through
adjacent geologic formations.[19] At Well A-21, this is exactly what happened. Since there was no
casing below 238 feet (73 m) sufficient to stop the immense pressure of gas, once the well was
plugged at the rig, the oil and gas left the well bore, ripping right through the soft sandstones on the
floor of the Santa Barbara Channel, and spewing a huge amount of oil and gas all the way to the
water surface where a thick bubbling oil slick quickly began to grow and spread.[19][23]

Expansion of the spill[edit]

Extent of the spill on the ocean surface on February 5, 1969, showing the northward and southward extremes
of observed oil during the year.

The disturbances on the surface of the ocean, which began to appear only 14 minutes after the
blowout, expanded during the next 24 hours. The largest was a dramatic boil-up about 800 feet
(200 m) east of the platform; another smaller disturbance broke the ocean surface about 300 feet
(100 m) west of the platform, and several smaller areas of bubbling could be observed around the
platform itself. Even after the well was further plugged at the platform with drilling mud during the
next week, these continued to boil up.[24] Investigators later determined that oil and gas was
emerging uncontrolled through five separate rips on the ocean floor.[19]
The first announcement of the potential disaster was made by Don Craggs, Union Oil's regional
superintendent to Lieutenant George Brown of the U.S. Coast Guard, about two and a half hours
after the blowout. He told Brown that a well had blown out but no oil was escaping. Craggs declined
an offer for help, suggesting that the situation was under control.[25]
The seriousness of the spill became evident the next morning, as a Coast Guard helicopter took
Brown along with a State Fish and Game warden out over the platform, where they were able to see
a central slick extending for several miles east, west, and south of the platform. They estimated a
total of 75 square miles (200 km2) covered by oil at 8 a.m., less than 24 hours after the blowout. An
anonymous worker on the drill rig telephoned the Santa Barbara News-Press regarding the blowout,
and the newspaper immediately obtained confirmation from Union Oil's headquarters in Los
Angeles.[26] The story was out.[27] Union Oil Vice President, John Fraser, assured reporters and local
officials that the spill was small, with a diameter of 1,000 to 3,000 feet (300 to 900 m), and the well
would be quickly controlled; additionally, he gave an estimated spill rate of 5,000 US gallons (19 m3)
per day. Later estimates put the spill rate in the first days at about 210,000 US gallons (790 m3).[28]
Santa Barbara was experiencing a stormy winter, with a large flood event having occurred on
January 25, just three days before the blowout. Enormous amounts of fresh water were still running
offshore from local streams, flowing south and southwest in the vicinity of the rig.[29] Combined with
the prevailing north-northwesterly winds typical of the area between storm systems, this pushed the
expanding oil slick away from the shore, and it seemed for several days that the beaches of Santa
Barbara would be spared. However, another huge storm system affected the region on February 4,
with winds moving around the compass clockwise from southeast to west; this pushed the oil slick
north into Santa Barbara harbor and onto all the beaches of southern Santa Barbara County and
northwestern Ventura County.[30] Booms had been placed around the harbor and beaches, but the
surf was heavy in the storm, and the oil was up to 8 inches (200 mm) deep at the boom by late
afternoon on the 4th. That evening the booms failed completely, breaking under the assault of the
storm and by the morning the entire harbor, containing around 800 boats, was several inches deep
in fresh crude oil, and all the boats were blackened.[31] Residents were evacuated, due to the risk of
explosion from the abundant hydrocarbon vapors, and both the oil contractors and the Coast Guard
began using chemical dispersants on the oil near the shore.[32]

Oil piled up at the seawall near the Santa Barbara Harbor. Note the blackness of the incoming wave; the water
has a thick layer of oil on top.

On the morning of February 5, residents of the entire populated zone on the coast awoke to the stink
of crude oil, and the sight of blackened beaches, sprinkled with dead and dying birds.[33] The sound
of the waves breaking was eerily muted by the thick layer of oil, which accumulated on shore in
some places to a depth of 6 inches (150 mm). Residents visited the beaches and looked on in
horror.[3] Robert Easton recounts a beachside encounter on February 5 between Dick Smith and a
high school student, Kathy Morales:

After high school let out, Kathy Morales had gone down to the sandbar at the end of the
breakwater. It was not the sandbar she had known. When Dick Smith of the News-
Press found her she was crying. Smith saw the reason. Nearby on the sand a dying
loon was in convulsions, covered from head to foot with black, sticky crude oil.

Tears ran down the girl's face as she watched the loon die. "You want to talk about The
Establishment?" she asked. "This is my life out here. I come out here all the time to
watch the sea and the birds and animals. I can't think of coming down here for a stroll
 again. I can't think of some day bringing my children here to watch and to play. I don't
know now," she said, with the tears streaming down her cheeks, "if it will ever be the
same again, and no one can tell me."[34]

Media coverage and public response[edit]

Media coverage of the spill was intense from the moment the oil reached the shore. The spill was
the major headline in many morning newspapers on February 5, also receiving wide coverage on
radio and television. The same morning, a U.S. Senate subcommittee interviewed local officials as
well as Fred Hartley, president of Union Oil, on the disaster in the making. Three major television
networks were there along with over 50 reporters, the largest media turnout for any Senate
subcommittee meeting since the Committee on Foreign Relations discussed the Vietnam
War.[35] During the meeting, local officials made their case that the Federal government had a conflict
of interest, in that they were making money from the same drilling they were mandated to oversee
and regulate. Hartley defended Union's record and denied that the event was a disaster: "I don't like
to call it a disaster, because there has been no loss of human life. I am amazed at the publicity for
the loss of a few birds."[36] Most controversially, offshore drilling operations all of which were
suspended immediately on February 3, by direct request of the Walter Hickel Secretary of the
Interior, pending a "complete reevaluation and reassessment of the situation"[37] had resumed after
just a break of several hours, just long enough for a closed-door meeting between oil company
representatives and Department of the Interior officials. Local officials, not invited to the meeting,
were furious that "complete reevaluation and reassessment" could have occurred in such a short
time, and in a meeting that excluded them; the fierce exchange was covered on national television,
along with grim footage of the thousands of dying birds on the tarred beaches of Santa Barbara, and
the spontaneous efforts of hundreds of civilian volunteers to pile straw on the oil, scrub rocks with
detergent, and struggle to save a few of the less-oiled birds.[38]
As the nation watched the spill on the television news, the hastily assembled volunteer crews
gathered to clean up the oil in any way they could. They distributed enormous piles of straw,
spreading them over oiled sections of the beach, and then raking them into disposable piles.[3] Other
workers used steam to clean the oil off boulders, in the process boiling rock-clinging marine life such
as mussels.[39] Airplanes dropped chemical dispersants to help break up the oil, even though those
chemicals were themselves toxic to wildlife.[39] Bulldozers pushed contaminated sand into piles for
offsite disposal. Civilian volunteers rescued many tarred birds by taking them to numerous rescue
facilities put together during the first days, but even after rescue the survival rate for birds was only
around 12 percent.[39][40] The first dead dolphin was found, its blowhole clogged by oil.[41]Offshore,
ships skimmed oil from the ocean surface into holding tanks, but as fast as they skimmed it up, new
oil rolled in from the south.[3]
Late on February 6, the day after the spill washed ashore, President Richard Nixon announced a
complete cessation of drilling, as well as production, in federal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel,
with the solitary exception of the relief well being drilled to intersect the blown-out borehole.[42] Still
the spill continued to spew from fissures in the ocean floor, undiminished, and by noon on February
7 a $1.3 billion class action lawsuit had been filed against Union Oil and their partners on Platform
A.[43] On the platform itself, workers labored continuously to try to kill the well. They made their final
attempt that afternoon and evening, pumping 13,000 barrels (2,100 m3) of the heaviest
available drilling mud into the well at pressures of thousands of pounds per square inch. They had
almost exhausted their supply of mud when the oil and gas boiling up from the ocean began to slow
down, and by 8:00 p.m. it had stopped. Delivering the coup de grce, the crews rammed over 1,000
sacks of concrete into the well. Well A-21 would leak no more. Approximately 2 million US gallons
(8,000 m3) of oil had already spilled into the ocean at this point; but there was more to come.[44]

Continued spill[edit]
Five days after workers killed Well A-21, on February 12, a Commercial Fisheries research vessel
studying dissolved oxygen levels in the water made an unpleasant discovery: from the ocean floor
itself, three large new boils of gas and oil were emerging from ruptures each about ten yards across,
and a large slick was again accumulating on the ocean surface.[45] Once again, an anonymous
telephone call from a rig worker alerted the Santa Barbara News-Press to the existence of a new oil
spill from the supposedly killed well only now the oil was coming from the ocean floor, seeping
from somewhere other than the filled borehole. Community outrage reached new heights:
particularly infuriating was that it was private citizens that had again discovered the problem, and the
oil company only acknowledged its existence later.[46]
This time the problem needed to be solved on the ocean bottom. Union put a large steel cap over
much of the leaking area, but leaks continued from other nearby locations. The company estimated
the leak rate at up to 4,000 US gallons (15 m3) per day.[47] The federal government approved
reopening some wells to attempt to intercept oil underneath the sea floor, and even reopening A-21;
neither method worked. The next measure involved pumping oil at a maximum rate from all five
wells on Platform A, on the theory that such action would reduce reservoir pressure and thus the
leak rate, but this only increased the rate at which oil spewed from the rents in the ocean floor.
Meanwhile, the cleanup progressed with setbacks, as huge waves of newly spilled oil fouled partially
cleaned beaches, and oil from the spill reached locations as distant as Pismo Beach in San Luis
Obispo County,[48] Catalina Island,[49] and Silver Strand Beach in San Diego.[50] Despite attempts by
Union to cement the cracks in the ocean floor, leaks continued, with a leak near one of the platform
legs predominating on February 23. By the end of the month, its flow had reduced, but oil was still
seeping, at a diminishing rate, from cracks both east and west of the platform.[51] Leaking continued
at a rate of about 30 barrels (4.8 m3) a day, diminishing but never completely stopping, reaching a
stable leak rate of between 5 to 10 barrels (0.79 to 1.59 m3) a day by May and June 1969, a leak
rate which persisted at least into 1970.[48] One last spill occurred at Platform A: a release of about
400 barrels (64 m3) between December 15 and 20, 1969, from a pipeline break.[50]
Total cleanup time for most of the beaches was about 45 days after the initial spill, although globs of
tar continued to wash ashore due to the high seep rate, and bigger patches came ashore during
subsequent spills. Most beaches were open to the public by June 1, although some of the rocky
areas on the shore were not cleaned until around August 15.[48] Yet oil continued to pool and wash up
on shore; on August 26, the harbor was so full of oil that once again it had to be closed, with cleanup
crews spreading straw from boats to bunch the oil up again, just as they had six months
before.[52] Indeed, oil from the spill persisted in the ocean into 1970, with large areas of crude still
being observed.[53]Since the spill occurred during the stormy season, when beach sand is at its
lowest levels (it replenishes during the course of a normal spring and summer), one fear was that
regions of oily sand would be revealed during the following winter; however this did not happen.[29]

President Nixon's visit; further oil development[edit]

On March 21, President Nixon came to Santa Barbara to see the spill and cleanup efforts for
himself. Arriving at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station, he then took a helicopter tour of the Santa
Barbara Channel, Platform A, and the polluted, partially cleaned beaches. He landed in Santa
Barbara and spoke to residents, promising to improve his handling of environmental problems,
telling the crowd, "...the Santa Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American
people." He also mentioned that he would consider a halt to all offshore drilling, and told assembled
reporters that the Department of the Interior had expanded the former buffer zone in the Channel by
an additional 34,000 acres (140 km2), and was converting the previous buffer zone into a permanent
ecological preserve.[54][55] However, on April 1, the ban was lifted, and drilling allowed to proceed on
five leases in the channel, under stricter oversight. Anger of local residents increased after this
reversal.[56]
After a series of unsuccessful struggles in the courts to prevent further oil development in the
Channel, the Department of the Interior gave the green light on August 15 to Sun Oil to construct
their Platform Hillhouse adjacent to Union's Platform A. Protestors harassed the convoy bringing the
platform all the way from the Oakland shipyard, down the coast, and into the Channel. Get Oil Out!
(GOO) staged a "fish-in" with boats and even helicopters fishing (unsuccessfully) at the planned
platform site, one mile east of Platform A.[57]They refused to move until the Supreme Court
responded to their appeal. Then the crane lifting the platform from the barge bungled the platform
transfer, and Platform Hillhouse flopped over in the water, legs-up, about two hundred yards from
the fleet of protestors.[58] While this was going on, the Supreme Court denied the appeal, allowing
Sun Oil to proceed, even though their platform floated upside down an absurd and discomforting
sight to local residents hopeful that the spill might have made oil industry accidents less likely. By
November 26, Hillhouse was installed correctly, and Platform C, the final platform to be built of the
four in the Dos Cuadras field, went up in 1977.[59]

Consequences[edit]
Environmental effects[edit]

Colony of marine mammals (elephant seals, sea lions) at western tip of San Miguel Island, 40 years after the
spill. This colony was affected by the oil spill; many of these animals were oiled, and an unknown number
died.[60]

The environmental effects of the spill were immediate and dramatic. At least 3,686 birds died those
being the ones that were counted; an unknown number died unseen. Some marine mammals, such
as sea lions and elephant seals died, although the numbers are unknown.[39] Effects on other
organisms varied. Fish populations seemed to be unaffected in the long term, although data from
1969 showed a drop in counts of several species. Authors of a Marine Fisheries Review study were
unwilling to make a firm link with the oil spill, since other variables such as water temperature and a
subsequent El Nio year could not be ruled out as causes of the divergence.[53] Intertidal organisms
such as barnacles (chthamalus fissus) were killed in large numbers, with mortality in some areas as
high as 80 to 90 percent.[61]
Overall, long-term environmental effects of the spill seemed to be minimal. In a "no strings
attached"[62] study funded by the Western Oil and Gas Association, through the Allan
Hancock Foundation at the University of Southern California, the authors suggested several
hypotheses for the lack of environmental damage to biologic resources in the Channel aside
from pelagic birds and intertidal organisms. First, creatures there may have evolved a tolerance to oil
in the water due to the presence of natural seeps in the vicinity for at least tens of thousands of
years; the area around Coal Oil Point has one of the most active natural underwater oil seeps in the
world. Second, the abundance of oil-eating bacteria in the water may be greater because of that
routine presence of oil in the water. Third, the spill happened between two large Pacific storms; the
storms broke up the oil, scattering it more quickly than happens in many other oil spills, and
additionally the sediment load in the seawater from freshwater runoff would have been greater, and
this assisted the oil in quickly sinking. Fourth, Santa Barbara Channel crude oil is heavy, having API
gravity between 10 and 13, and is both minimally soluble in water, and sinks relatively easily.
Therefore, fish and other organisms were exposed to the oil for a shorter time than was the case
with other oil spills, such as the 1967 Torrey Canyon spill in which the crude was lighter, and
emulsified during treatment with massive quantities of toxic dispersants and detergents, causing it to
remain in place longer.[48][63][64]
Reports that large sea mammals were largely unaffected by the spill were flatly contradicted by a
story in Life magazine, published on June 9, 1969. In late May, reporters and photographers from
the magazine visited uninhabited San Miguel Island, the westernmost of the Santa Barbara Channel
Islands, famous for its colonies of elephant seals and sea lions. The team counted over one hundred
dead animals in the stretch of beach they visited, which was still black with oil.[65]

Economic effects[edit]
Economic effects of the spill were most severe during 1969, as all commercial fishing was
suspended in the affected area, and tourism suffered a precipitous drop.[66] Most ocean-related
industries were affected in some way. Property damage along the shoreline was also considerable,
since the storms had washed oil up beyond the normal high-tide line. Both governmental entities and
private individuals filed class-action lawsuits against Union Oil to recover damages. These were
settled within about five years. The City of Santa Barbara received $4 million in 1974 for damages
inflicted.[67] Owners of hotels, beachfront homes, and other facilities damaged by the spill received
$6.5 million; the commercial fishing interests received $1.3 million for their losses; and cities, the
state, and the County of Santa Barbara settled for $9.5 million in total.[19]

Policy consequences[edit]
While the Santa Barbara oil spill was not the sole event which built the regulatory and legislative
superstructure of the modern environmental movement in the United States some prominent
pieces of which include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act, and in California the California Coastal
Commission and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) it was one of the most dramatic and
visible of the several key events that led up to those changes. Through the 1960s, industrial pollution
and its consequences had come more and more to the public attention, commencing with Rachel
Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring and including such events as the passage of the Water Quality
Act, the campaign to ban DDT, the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System, the
1967 Torrey Canyon tanker accident which devastated coastal areas in both England and France,
and the burning of the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. At the time, the Santa Barbara
spill was the largest oil spill ever in U.S. waters, and its occurrence during a fierce battle between
local residents and the very oil company responsible for the spill only made the controversy more
intense, the battle more public, and the anti-oil cause seem more valid to a wider segment of the
populace.[48] In the several years after the spill,[specify] more environmental legislation was passed than
in any other similar period in U.S. history.[68]
The spill was the first test for the new National Pollution Contingency Plan, signed into law by
President Lyndon Johnson in 1968. Officials from the Federal Water Pollution Control
Administration, created only in 1965, came to Santa Barbara to oversee not only the cleanup but the
effort to plug the well.[48]
Local organizations formed in the aftermath of the spill included Get Oil Out! (GOO), formed on the
first day of the disaster,[5] as well as the Environmental Defense Center; additionally, the University of
California, Santa Barbara opened its Environmental Studies program.[69] A California ballot initiative
created the powerful California Coastal Commission, which oversees all activity within the coastal
zone (3 nautical miles (6 km) from the shoreline, and inland in a band ranging from several hundred
feet in urban areas to several miles in some rural parts of the coastline).[3][70]
NEPA in particular completely changed the regulatory situation, in that it required that all projects by
any federal government agency be scrutinized for their potential adverse environmental impacts
prior to approval, including a period for public comment. This included proposals to place new drilling
platforms in offshore oil leases.[71]

Moratoria and bans on offshore leasing and drilling[edit]

The California State Lands Commission has not granted any new leases for offshore drilling within
its jurisdiction out to the 3 nautical miles (6 km) limit since 1969, although existing operations,
such as at Platform Holly on the Ellwood field and Rincon Island on the Rincon field, have been
allowed to continue. A proposal to slant drill into the state-controlled zone from an existing platform
outside of it, on the Tranquillon Ridge, was rejected in 2009 by the State Lands Commission by a 2
1 vote.
The issue of drilling beyond the three-mile limit, in federal waters of the Outer Continental Shelf
(OCS), has been more complicated. Production from existing leases has been allowed almost
without break since the spill, as well as new drilling from existing platforms within lease boundaries.
However, no new leases have been granted in the OCS since 1981. In 1976, leases were sold off
the Orange County coast, resulting in the construction of Platforms Edith, Elly, Ellen, and Eureka; in
1979, Platforms Harvest and Hermosa were constructed in federal waters near Point Arguello, and
in 1981, the oil fields in that area were further developed with the sale of another pair of leases
which now contain platforms Hidalgo and Irene.[72]
In 1981 Congress enacted a moratorium on new offshore oil leasing, with exceptions in the Gulf of
Mexico and parts of offshore Alaska, that remained in effect until 2008 when Congress did not renew
it.
Leases purchased in the 1960s in some cases were not developed until much later. Even though
there was a moratorium on new leases, Exxon installed Platforms Harmony and Heritage in the
Santa Barbara Channel in 1989, in over 1,000 feet (300 m) of water, completing development of
their Santa Ynez Unit (which includes the Hondo and Pescado Oil Fields).[72] Several federal leases
remain undeveloped, including the Gato Canyon Unit southwest of Goleta.

Earth Day[edit]
The aftermath of the spill inspired then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to organize what came to
be known as "Earth Day", when he succeeded in amassing some 20 million people to the cause of
educating people on issues related to the environment on April 20, 1970, with the help of U.S.
Rep. Pete McCloskey of California.[73]

Present day[edit]
Platform A remains in the Santa Barbara Channel along with its three siblings, Platforms B, C, and
Hillhouse, still pumping oil from the largely depleted field. As of 2010, the Dos Cuadras Field has
produced 260 million barrels of oil; the Minerals Management Service estimated in 2010 that
11,400,000 barrels (1,810,000 m3) remaining in the field are recoverable with present
technology.[74][75]
The current operator of the drilling platform, along with the other three platforms on the Dos Cuadras
field, is the private firm DCOR LLC, of Ventura, California. They acquired Platform A from Plains
Exploration & Production in 2005. DCOR is the fourth company to run the platform since Unocal sold
its Santa Barbara Channel operations in 1996.[76]
SANTA BARBARA - From a large crack on the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel, about 5
miles off the coastline, a few barrels of oil bubble to the surface each day. The slick and the
nearby Unocal Corp. drilling platform Alpha are the last visible vestiges of the worst oil spill in
the nations history.

Twenty years ago today, on January 28, 1969, a blowout erupted below the platform and,
before it was plugged, more than 3 million gallons of crude oil spewed from drilling-induced
cracks in the channel floor. For weeks national attention was focused on the spills disturbing,
dramatic images. Oil-soaked birds, unable to fly, slowly dying on the sand. Waves so thick with
crude oil that they broke on shore with an eerie silence. Thirty miles of sandy beaches coated
with thick sludge. Hundreds of miles of ocean covered with an oily black sheen. But the spills
impact went far beyond the fouled beaches. The disaster is considered to be a major factor in the
birth of the modern-day environmental movement.

It was the Spark, The blowout was the spark that brought the environmental issue to the
nations attention, said Arent Schuyler, lecturer emeritus in environmental studies at UC Santa
Barbara. People could see very vividly that their communities could bear the brunt of industrial
accidents. They began forming environmental groups to protect their communities and started
fighting for legislation to protect the environment.

During the next few years there was more environmental legislation than at any time in the
nations history. In 1969, Congress passed the National Environmental Policy Act which requires
environmental impact studies before any federal action can be taken. California adopted similar
legislation in 1970. A wave of national environmental legislation followed, including clean air
and water acts, and laws that protected sensitive coastal areas and endangered species. The spill
caused many people to doubt the safety claims of the oil industry and the government, said
Michael Paparian, state director of the Sierra Club. Environmental activism gained widespread
support he said and in the two years after the oil spill, Sierra club membership doubled.

In general, oil spills can affect animals and plants in two ways: from the oil itself and from the
response or cleanup operations. Understanding both types of impacts can help spill responders
minimize overall impacts to ecological communities and help them to recover much more quickly.

Spilled oil can harm living things because its chemical constituents are poisonous. This can affect
organisms both from internal exposure to oil through ingestion or inhalation and from external
exposure through skin and eye irritation. Oil can also smother some small species of fish or
invertebrates and coat feathers and fur, reducing birds' and mammals' ability to maintain their body
temperatures.

We have a series of guidance documents that describe the biology of and impacts of oil on sea
turtles, mangroves, and coral reefs. Each one includes related planning and response
considerations for oil spills which may affect these particularly sensitive organisms and habitats.

What Creatures Are Most Affected by Oil Spills?

Since most oils float, the creatures most affected by oil are animals like sea otters and seabirds that
are found on the sea surface or on shorelines if the oil comes ashore. During most oil spills, seabirds
are harmed and killed in greater numbers than other kinds of creatures. Sea otters can easily be
harmed by oil, since their ability to stay warm depends on their fur remaining clean. If oil remains on
a beach for a while, other creatures, such as snails, clams, and terrestrial animals may suffer. To
learn more details about this topic, check out the Oiled Wildlife Care Network from the University of
California at Davis.

What Measures Are Taken When an Animal Comes in Contact with Oil?

Most states have regulations about the specific procedures to follow. Untrained people should not try
to capture any oiled bird or animal. At most U.S. spills, a bird and/or mammal rehabilitation center is
set up to care for oiled animals. You can read an overview of this topic at EPA's Rescuing
Wildlife page and find more information at the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research website and
the Oiled Wildlife Care Networkwebsite.

You can also read about one NOAA staffer who usually works behind the scenes volunteering to
wash birds affected by an oil spill in her city.

What Type of Spilled Oil Causes the Most Harm?

The type of oil spilled matters because different types of oil behave differently in the environment,
and animals and birds are affected differently by different types of oil. However, it's not so easy to
say which kind is worst.

First, we should distinguish between "light" and "heavy" oils. Fuel oils, such as gasoline and diesel
fuel, are very "light" oils. Light oils are very volatile (they evaporate relatively quickly), so they usually
don't remain for long in the aquatic or marine environment (typically no longer than a few days). If
they spread out on the water, as they do when they are accidentally spilled, they will evaporate
relatively quickly.

However, while they are present, light oils present two significant hazards. First, some can ignite or
explode. Second, many light oils, such as gasoline and diesel, are also considered to be toxic. They
can kill animals or plants that they touch, and they also are dangerous to humans who breathe their
fumes or get them on their skin.

In contrast, very "heavy" oils (like bunker oils, which are used to fuel ships) look black and may be
sticky for a time until they weather sufficiently, but even then they can persist in the environment for
months or even years if not removed. While these oils can be very persistent, they are generally
significantly less acutely toxic than lighter oils. Instead, the short-term threat from heavy oils comes
from their ability to smother organisms whereas over the long-term, some chronic health effects like
tumors may result in some organisms.

Also, if heavy oils get onto the feathers of birds, the birds may die of hypothermia (they lose the
ability to keep themselves warm). We observe this same effect if sea otters become oiled. After days
or weeks, some heavy oils will harden, becoming very similar to an asphalt road surface. In this
hardened state, heavy oils will probably not harm animals or plants that come in contact with them.

In between light and heavy oils are many different kinds of medium oils, which will last for some
amount of time in the environment and will have different degrees of toxicity. Ultimately, the effects
of any oil depend on where it is spilled, where it goes, and what animals and plants, or people, it
affects.
Oil Spill
Our planet, Earth, has large reserves of oil and gas trapped deep beneath its surface.
Occasionally, these reserves develop cracks and some of the oil or gas seep out.
However, this is a part of nature and rarely causes any major damage. On the other hand,
there are times when the same problem is causes because of human interference and it
can cause a great deal of damage to marine ecosystems. In the last thirty odd years, the
issue of oil spills and their effects has taken on much importance. This is because when
an oil spill occurs, it causes a multitude of problems for the environment and us.

An oil spill happens when liquid petroleum is released into the environment by vehicle,
vessel or pipeline. It happens on a large scale and is mostly seen in water bodies. It
happens due to human negligence and is a major form of pollution. The source of the
spill are many. Crude oil can be released by tankers on land. In water bodies, the spill
occurs due to drilling rigs, offshore oil platforms and well. An oil spills and their effects
can also be experienced with refined petroleum or even waste oil from large scale
industries. What is common in all of them is that the damage caused by them is
permanent and takes a long time to clean up.

As oil spill, it floats on water and prevents sunlight to pass through it. The shiny
substance that you see sometimes on top layer of water is nothing but oil which makes it
difficult for plants and sea animals to survive. Cleaning up of oil spill is no easy task.
Various factors need to be considered before carrying out operations. Some of them being
amount of oil spilled, temperature of water, type of beaches and many more.
Oil spill can prove fatal for plant, animal and human life. The substance is so toxic that it
can cause massive loss of species that live in the sea. Oil spill penetrates into the plumage
and fur of birds, breaks down the insulating capabilities of feather which makes them
heavier, disallow them to fly and kill them via poisoning or hypothermia.

Even though the public attention towards oil spills has grown in the last three decades,
they have been happening for over a century. Since the coming of the industrial
revolution, such accidents have been happening. However, the large scale problems that
follow oil spills and their effects are more obvious to us today. There are two main types
of effects seen after the spill.

Effects of Oil Spills

1. Environmental Effects: First of these is the environmental effect. The animal life that
lives in the water or near the shore are the ones most affected by the spill. In most cases,
the oil simply chokes the animals to death. Others that live face a number of other
problems. The oil works its way into the fur and plumage of the animals. As a result, both
birds and mammals find it harder to float in the water or regulate their body temperatures.

Many baby animals and birds starve to death, since their parents cannot detect their
natural body scent. Birds that preen themselves to get rid of the oil accidentally swallow
the oil and die due to the toxic effects. In many cases, the animals become blind due to
repeated exposure to the oil. Dolphins, sea otters, fish, countless species of birds and
many oceanic mammals face these consequences. Countering these effects and cleaning
the oil can take anywhere between a few weeks to many years, depending on the damage
caused.

2. Effect on Economy: The second major effect of the oil spill is seen on the economy.
When precious crude oil or refined petroleum is lost, it effects the amount of petroleum
and gas available for use. This means more barrels have to be imported from other
countries. Then comes the process of cleaning the oil spill, which requires a lot of
financing. Although the company responsible for the oil spills and their effects has to
clean it up, there is a lot of government help required at this point.

The workers that are brought on board to clean up the spill face tremendous health
problems later in life as well. Their medical treatment has to be paid for and becomes the
responsibility of the government. Putting all the methods of recovery into place and
monitoring them takes away resources from other more important work and hits the
economy in subtle but powerful ways.

3. Effect on Tourism Industry: The local tourism industry suffers a huge setback as
most of the tourists stay away from such places. Dead birds, sticky oil and huge tarballs
become common sight. Due to this, various activities such as sailing, swimming, rafting,
fishing, parachute gliding cannot be performed. Industries that rely on sea water to carry
on their day to day activities halt their operations till it gets cleaned.

One of the biggest oil spills seen in history happened during Gulf war when approximate
240 to 336 million gallons of crude oil flowed into the Persian Gulf. It was considered
one of the worst disasters, beating the Ixtoc 1 Oil spill in Mexico. Recent major oil spill
happened when an oil rig, Deepwater Horizon sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The spill
released somewhere between 172 to 180 million gallons of crude oil into the
environment. In the year 2010 alone, six oil spills were seen in the USA. Outside of the
United States, oil spills have happened in Canada, Nigeria, France, United Kingdom and
in China.

While the long term issues causes by oil spills and their effects is yet to be fully observed,
the daily problems are clear. However, most corporations still do not have a solid plan in
place for when this emergency may strike.

One must understand that oil spill is not the only threat that marine life is
facing. Increasing pollution, contamination of industrial chemicals, exploitation of the
resources they provide are also some of the serious threats.