DOJ charges 3 companies with negligence for Orange County oil spill

Three companies were indicted Wednesday on a charge of negligent conduct after an offshore oil pipeline rupture in Orange County.

The three defendant companies are Amplify Energy Corp. of Houston, its subsidiary, Beta Operating Co. LLC, and San Pedro Bay Pipeline.

“An indictment filed this afternoon charges the companies that own and operate the 17-mile long San Pedro Bay Pipeline with one misdemeanor count of negligent discharge of oil,” stated a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The U.S. attorney said the companies failed to properly respond to eight leak alarms over more than 13 hours and improperly restarted the pipeline that was shut down after the alarms rang.

Dan Margolis, the public relations representative for Amplify Energy, said the company thought they were getting false alarms.

“[T]he pipeline’s leak detection system was not functioning as designed,” he wrote. “Instead, as the factual record shows today, the leak occurred over four miles away.”

The pipeline, which transfers crude oil from offshore platforms to a processing plant in Long Beach, started leaking on Oct. 1 but the companies continued operations until the next morning.

Federal officials estimated that 25,000 gallons of oil leaked into the sea 4.7 miles west of Huntington Beach, and oil also washed up on beaches in San Diego County.

The charge carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years probation plus fines that could total millions of dollars.