VENTURA, Calif. – An estimated 29,400 gallons of crude oil spilled Thursday from a pipeline and flowed down an arroyo in Ventura County, California, officials said.
The oil moved a half-mile from the spill but did not reach a beach, Ventura Fire Department spokeswoman Kelly Flanders said.
The spill was reported in the Hall Canyon area above the city of Ventura and flowed into the Prince Barranca, a ravine that ends at San Buenaventura State Beach near the Ventura Pier.
Fire departments responded and a pumphouse operating the line was shut down.
Initial projections that up to 210,000 gallons may have spilled were later reduced.
There was no immediate information on the possible cause.
The spill came 13 months after more than 120,000 gallons of oil spilled on the coast of neighbouring Santa Barbara County. Some of the crude flowed into the ocean at Refugio State Beach and killed birds and sea lions.
That pipeline, owned by Plains All American Pipeline, was found to have corrosion.
Federal regulators said last month that Plains failed to prevent corrosion in its pipes, detect the rupture or respond swiftly as crude streamed toward the ocean on May 19, 2015.
The report was issued just two days after Plains was indicted in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on 46 criminal counts, including four felonies of polluting state waters and three dozen misdemeanours of harming wildlife.
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This story has been corrected with officials now saying the estimated size of spill is 29,400 gallons, after they initially estimated 210,000 gallons.