Mapping 7 million gallons of crude oil spills — High Country News
▻https://www.hcn.org/articles/spilling-oil-santa-barbara
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On May 19, a pipeline owned by Plains All American burst near Santa Barbara, California, ultimately spilling more than 100,000 gallons, or some 2,400 barrels, of oil. Tens of thousands of gallons of the oil slid into a storm drain and flowed into the Pacific Ocean.
The spill garnered national coverage for good reason: It killed or injured hundreds of birds, sea lions and other wildlife, sullied a long stretch of beautiful coastline and happened near where the notorious 1969 spill that inflamed a burgeoning environmental movement occurred. But the spill was anything but unique. Over the past five years, there have been over 1,000 crude oil pipeline leaks and ruptures reported to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Using data from the PHMSA, High Country News put together a map of every one of those spills in the U.S., from January 2010 to May of this year. The Santa Barbara spill has yet to make the list, as the cleanup — costing more than $60 million and growing — is still in progress. Nor did spills that weren’t related to pipelines, like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010. A browse through the data reveals: