Scientist: Oil slick likely from natural seafloor seepage

No oil was reported on the shore, but the Coast Guard sent a team to inspect the beach, USCG Petty Officer Andrea Anderson told NBC4.

When kayakers found the large oil sheen off the coast Wednesday, it gave locals a bit of a scare, especially with the Refugio spill still fresh on the mind.

An apparent oil slick off the coast of Goleta left a sheen on the ocean alongside Santa Barbara County Wednesday.

That break spilled more than 100,000 gallons of crude, including 21,000 gallons that flowed into the ocean.

In May, as much as 2,400 barrels of crude oil was spilled onto a pristine beach and into the Pacific about 15 miles (25 km) west of Goleta when a pipeline ruptured along the coast.

Two kayakers came in from the water with their legs and kayaks covered in the film soon after the crews arrived.

“The cleanup was devastating for a lot of people and cost a lot of money and it really damaged our resources”, said Barbara Burge, who lives near Goleta Beach.

The Coast Guard is testing samples to determine whether the oil reported Wednesday about 1,000 yards from Goleta is from seepage or crude extraction operations or another source.

“We want everyone to stay a safe distance away”, she said.

The Coast Guard is now awaiting lab results that may determine the source of the oil.

And officials call it an oil sheen because of the rainbow-like effect you see when light reflects off of it. As tides moved, the oil split into sections and covered only about one-third of the total area, he said. It isn’t thick enough to be scooped up, she said, and should dissipate on its own in the days ahead.

The platform is now shut down and there is no oil in its pipeline, said Zach Shulman, the company’s director for corporate finance and investor relations. At Coal Oil Point, a seep field in the Santa Barbara Channel, thousands of gallons of oil flow into the ocean each day, something residents have grown accustomed to. “That pipeline was previously evacuated of oil, and is now filled with sea water”.

“We’re not calling it a spill, we’re just saying it’s unusually large”, he said.