California sheen from natural seeps

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Laboratory testing of the sheen spotting last week off the California coast show the product was not from the Santa Barbara oil spill, an analyst said.

Officials in Santa Barbara last week confirmed oil sheen was about 3 miles long off the coast from the area's Goleta Beach. The report came more than two months after Plains All American reported a release from a pipeline system in Santa Barbara County at Refugio Beach. That spill spread oil more than 100 miles along the California coastline.

David Valentine, professor of microbial geochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said in response to email questions testing of the sheen indicated it was from natural seeps in the area.

"We conducted laboratory testing of a sample from the sheen observed last week at Goleta Beach," he said. "The chemical fingerprint matched to local seep oil and did not match to Refugio Line 901 product."

Sheen from the Refugio Beach incident had dissipated by late June. Approximately 2,500 barrels of oil spilled from the Line 901 system, which federal testing revealed had "extensive" corrosion with walls degraded by as much as 74 percent of their original thickness in some locations.

About 500 barrels of oil may have reached the waters off the coast of California when Line 901 leaked May 19. Area beaches were closed during the spill response, though few precautions were issued following the reports of new sheen.

Valentine said natural seepage volume from the area in and around Goleta Beach is around 100 barrels of oil per day.