Some $1 million in expenses incurred responding to the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill is being reimbursed to Orange County, after its Board of Supervisors agreed to the settlement.
“The amount we accepted was the entire amount of our claim,” said Don Wagner, Orange County supervisor for the Third District. “They paid us a hundred cents on the dollar for all of the claims that we were entitled to out of the spill and the resulting cleanup. We couldn't have gotten anymore even if we had gone to trial over it. We call that a win.”
The payout releases the county from a lawsuit currently pending before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, Amplify Energy owned the oil rig responsible for the spill.
“It's reimbursement for the various expenses the county incurred in responding to the spill like some cleanups and some lost economic activity as well as beach closures,” Wagner told the Southern California Record. “We lost almost $1 million and all of that gets reimbursed by Amplify.”
About 25,000 gallons of oil spilled from a 17.7-mile pipeline into the ocean on Oct. 1, 2021, according to media reports. All supervisors except for Andrew Do voted to accept the $956,352 settlement.
ABC 7 further reported that Do thought there could be other as-yet-unaccounted-for expenses emerging in the future.
“In Andrew's defense, he made some good arguments,” Wagner said. “The rest of us just felt that the hundred cents on the dollar, the overwhelming ability to get back all of our money and be done with this claim outweighed some of the concerns that Andrew had.”
A cut in the pipeline was allegedly created due to an anchor hitting the pipeline and an oil spigot not properly shut off.
“The county was extremely fortunate to come out with such relatively light damages,” Wagner added. “$1 million isn't nothing, by any means, but everybody who responded did so quickly and effectively. We were able to keep damages down and let's just hope we never have to go through this again.”