AP journalists provided a week of outstanding coverage on one of the largest oil spills in modern California history after oil leaked from a damaged underwater pipeline, washing up on Huntington Beach, otherwise known as “Surf City USA.” The reporting revealed potential lapses in the response by the pipeline company and the Coast Guard.
Working in all formats, reporters Stefanie Dazio, Amy Taxin, Brian Melley and Matt Brown; videographers Eugene Garcia and Haven Daley; and freelance photographer Ringo H.W. Chiu followed the developing story with sterling spot coverage that kept the story among the most popular of AP’s offerings.
Among the highlights, Melley chased documents to find that about 12 hours passed after the first report of a possible leak before the company, Amplify Energy, shut down the pipeline and notified the Coast Guard. He also found the Coast Guard waited until after daybreak to begin search for the spill even though they had reports of a suspected spill hours earlier. Brown reported that Amplify’s response plan for a major spill called for what the company may have failed to do — quickly identify the problem and shut down the pipeline.
Dazio, meanwhile, pressed company and Coast Guard officials, both in news conferences and one-on-one, to clarify often conflicting or evasive information on the response.
Cleanup contractors deploy skimmers and floating booms, trying to prevent further crude oil invasion of the Talbert Marsh wetlands in Huntington Beach, Calif., Oct. 3, 2021. One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled contain the crude. before it spread farther into protected wetlands.
AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu
Birds are active along the contaminated shoreline as workers in protective suits clean the beach in Newport Beach, Calif., Oct. 6, 2021, after a major offshore oil spill.
AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu
A worker in protective gear cleans the contaminated beach in Newport Beach, Calif., Oct. 6, 2021, after a major offshore oil spill caused by a ruptured undersea pipeline.
AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu
An aerial photo shows the closed beach after oil washed up on Huntington Beach, Calif., Oct. 4, 2021, following a major oil spill off the coast of Southern California.
AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu
Beachgoers relax as workers continue to clean the contaminated beach in Huntington Beach, Calif., Oct. 11, 2021. Huntington Beach reopened its shoreline after water testing results came back with non-detectable amounts of oil-associated toxins in the ocean water, city and state officials said.
AP Photo / Ringo H.W. Chiu
Taxin, who lives in Huntington Beach, had been first on the scene and delivered daily reporting on the cleanup. A week after the leak she wrote that while the long-term environmental effects aren’t known, the spill wasn’t the catastrophe conservationists and city officials first feared.
Video and photos virtually owned this story for the entire week, producing a wide range of compelling visuals. Freelance photographer Chiu captured photos of oiled birds and workers painstakingly cleaning the beach, as well as drone video and stills for perspective. Video journalists Garcia and Daley offered clients a morning live shot each day and hustled to cover everything from multiple news conferences to the cleanup effort, and reaction from local residents and business owners.