Samples of oil were taken and protective measures were put in at environmentally sensitive habitat areas on Wednesday evening while response teams conducted flights early Thursday morning to assess a sheen spotted offshore of Bolsa Chica State Beach.
Calls to the Southern California Spill Response on whether oil was still spotted Thursday were unanswered.
So far, there has been no shoreline impacts observed as of this morning, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife Spill Prevention & Response reported on social media.
“As a proactive measure, protective strategies were deployed overnight at sensitive environmental sites. These sites include Talbert Marsh, Bolsa Chica wetlands, Newport Slough and the Santa Ana River,” the department said.
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Samples were collected Wednesday as part of the investigation to determine a source, officials said.
Oil sent to a lab can be analyzed for a “fingerprint” to tell whether it is naturally occurring seepage or from oil production. Recent oil sheens spotted have been tested to see if the oil was from the same pipeline that spilled gallons in early October and shut down area beaches and businesses across the Orange County coastline or from a new source.
The latest sighting is the second in a week’s time and the third in the past month. Samples taken from the last sighting showed it was not from natural seepage or the October pipeline breach, leaving authorities wondering where the new oil is coming from.