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 The corrective action order issued on Thursday by the U.S.
Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Administration, or PHMSA, is not regarded as a disciplinary
enforcement sanction against the company, Plains All American
Pipeline LP <PAA.N>, officials said.
But it requires a detailed and lengthy list of actions before the
oil line resumes operations, starting with removal of the failed
pipe for metallurgical and mechanical tests, purging the line of
remaining petroleum and an independent review of inspection results,
past and present.
It also mandates a "root-cause analysis" that explores not only the
direct cause of the spill but "every contributing factor" that may
have played a part, such as any safety compliance issues, said Linda
Daugherty, a deputy associate administrator for the agency.
The order sets deadlines for some actions: 45 days to complete tests
of the failed pipe segment, 60 days for the root-cause analysis and
90 days to submit a plan for remedying any problems.
No overall time frame was given for putting the pipeline back
online, but Daugherty said she did "not anticipate a quick restart."
 Word of the action came as Santa Barbara County's district attorney,
Joyce Dudley, said she was consulting with federal and state
prosecutors on the potential for bringing a criminal or civil case
against the pipeline company.
The company declined to comment.
PHMSA generally issues corrective action orders for serious pipeline
spills when there is no clear understanding of the cause, as is the
case in California, Daugherty said.
According to the agency, an estimated 1,700 to 2,500 barrels of
crude petroleum gushed onto San Refugio State Beach and into the
Pacific Ocean about 20 miles (32 km) west of Santa Barbara when the
underground pipeline, which runs along a coastal highway, ruptured
on Tuesday.
Plains has said that as much as a fifth of the spilled oil reached
the ocean, leaving slicks that stretched for more than 9 miles along
the coast.
San Refugio and another nearby state beach, El Capitan, have been
closed indefinitely while crews work around the clock to clean up
the spilled oil.
Based on the latest estimates, environmental activists and local
officials say the spill was the largest to hit the ecologically
sensitive shoreline northwest of Los Angeles since a massive 1969
blowout dumped up to 100,000 barrels into the Santa Barbara Channel.
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That disaster, which dwarfs Tuesday's accident, killed thousands of
sea birds and other wildlife and helped spark the modern U.S.
environmental movement.
Executives for Plains have accepted responsibility for the latest
spill, though they say they have not determined its cause.
They said the rupture was proceeded by a drop in pressure in the
pipeline detected by control-room operators in Texas before the
spill was reported.
The 24-inch-diameter line typically carries about 1,200 barrels of
oil an hour from an Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> processing facility
near Santa Barbara to a pumping station 10.6 miles away. From there,
the oil is carried in a larger line north toward a distribution hub
in Bakersfield, more than a hundred miles away.
The company said an internal inspection was conducted a few weeks
ago but results were not yet back. Any immediate safety concerns
turned up by the inspection should have already been brought to the
company's attention, Daugherty said.
According to PHMSA, two previous such inspections, in 2007 and 2012,
led to a total of 54 excavations of the pipeline for repairs, mostly
due to external corrosion.
Plains defended its safety record in a statement on Friday, saying
it had significantly increased maintenance and safety programs in
both size and spending since 2008.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Editing by Doina Chiacu
and Leslie Adler)
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