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U.S. Coast Guard
spokesman Michael Anderson said crews were investigating the
streak of tar balls that spread across about 6.5 miles (10 km)
of Manhattan Beach, just southwest of Los Angeles.
He said crews had also identified another collection of the
globs floating a few miles off the coast, which was believed to
be connected.
The news comes just a week after an oil pipeline ruptured in
Santa Barbara, dumping as much as 2,400 barrels (101,000
gallons, or 382,000 liters) of crude onto a pristine stretch of
the coastline and into the Pacific, leaving slicks that
stretched more than 9 miles (14 km) along the coast.
It was not immediately clear whether the two events were linked,
Anderson said, adding that the Coast Guard was testing samples
of the petroleum product to determine where it came from and how
it got there.
The Los Angeles Department of Public Health said in a statement
that a stretch of shoreline between Manhattan Beach and Hermosa
Beach was closed due to the oil.
The county fire department said lifeguards reported seeing the
substance wash ashore around 10 a.m., and continuing until about
noon.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the Coast Guard ordered the company at the center of the Santa
Barbara oil spill to continue its efforts to clean up the
pipeline breach.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by
Clarence Fernandez)
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