Page 6 - Beta Operating News Today

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on Wednesday. Attorneys say the number of individuals affected by the oil spill could go up.

Coast guard investigators are looking in whether the cargo ship Rotterdam Express damaged an oil pipeline in California after GPS tracking showed it move over the pipes location while anchored.

Investigators trying to pinpoint the cause of the big oil spill in Orange County say they suspect offshore oil platform Elly was somehow involved.

Officials also refused to comment on whether the pipeline’s internal leak-detection system was operational at the time of the rupture.

As record levels of cargo ships have anchored off the shores of LA and Long Beach, investigators have not ruled out the possibility that an anchor for one may have caused an oil pipeline leak in the area.

The head of the company that operates the pipeline said that divers have examined more than 8,000 feet of pipe and are focusing on “one area of significant interest.”

The company whose pipeline is suspected in one of the largest oil spills in recent California history has been cited 72 times for safety and environmental violations that were severe enough that drilling had to be curtailed or cut off to fix the problem.

The maximum amount of crude oil that could have spilled into the ocean off the coast of Huntington Beach in Orange County so far is 126,000 gallons. That’s the estimate by local officials.

Officials investigating one of California’s largest recent oil spills are looking into whether a ship's anchor may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean...

Officials investigating one of California’s largest oil spills are looking into whether a ship’s anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor.