WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Plains All American Pipeline, which owned and operated the oil pipeline that ruptured off the coast of Santa Barbara, California on Tuesday, had 175 spill accidents since 2006, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) said in a statement.
“The company that owns the pipeline involved in Tuesday’s major oil spill in Santa Barbara has had 175 incidents (mostly oil spills) nationwide since 2006, including 11 in California,” the statement read on Thursday.
Officials scrambled to contain the leak, but said that it had spread some nine miles around the Santa Barbara coastline, and would likely cause environmental damages.
The CBD noted that on 20 occasions since 2006, the Plains All American Pipeline had US federal enforcement actions initiated against them.
Most of the initiated actions involved “corrosion control and maintenance problems on its pipelines,” it said, which include two cases where the company was fined $115,600 in 2009.
“This company’s disturbing record highlights oil production’s toxic threat to California’s coast,” CBD Oceans Program Director Miyoko Sakashita said in the statement. “Oil pipelines and offshore fracking and drilling endanger our fragile marine ecosystems. Every new oil project increases the risk of fouled beaches and oil-soaked sea life.”
The breaks have caused more than 2,300 injuries, some 2 million barrels of spilled oil into waterways and the ground as well as $7 billion in property damage.
More than 35 percent of those pipeline breaks were caused by corrosion or other structural failures.
In 2014 alone, Plains All American Pipeline had a total of five oil leakage incidents in California, the non-profit said.
