More than 4,000 gallons of oil and contaminated wastewater spilled in southern Monterey County following a pipeline failure early Friday, according to state emergency filings.
Private cleanup crews were dispatched to the scene at the San Ardo Oil Field, which was “contained to the immediate area,” according to reports from field operator Aera Energy. No injuries were reported.
Aera Energy could not be reached for comment Friday.
A crew was on site performing maintenance work on an 8-inch oil line when 96 barrels of crude oil and wastewater leaked at around 7 a.m., according to a hazardous materials report filing with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Aera Energy halted flow to the line to stop the release, reports said.
The spill occurred near Sargent Creek, just over a mile upstream from its confluence with the Salinas River — a key drinking and irrigation source for the Salinas Valley and much of the Central Coast. No waterways were directly affected as of Friday morning, according to the report, though the material has spread into surrounding soil.
State officials have not yet released estimates of how much soil will need to be removed. CalOES did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The spill comes amid a string of recent oil releases in California, including in Ventura County last month, which saw crews race storms to contain crude that had entered a waterway.
Environmental advocates say such incidents underscore the risks posed by aging fossil fuel infrastructure.
“In the past few weeks, we’ve seen numerous examples of how oil production threatens California’s communities and water supplies,” Hollin Kretzmann, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. “California needs to move away from dirty fossil fuel production as quickly as possible.”
