Newly released data indicated that a large cargo ship scheduled to be at anchor off the Southern California coast repeatedly crossed over and possibly damaged an undersea oil pipeline during a January 2021 storm.
That same pipeline near Orange County was discovered to have ruptured earlier this month, pumping about 25,000 gallons of crude oil into the surrounding ocean and onto the Huntington Beach shoreline.
The storm struck as an overflow of shipping vessels lay anchored off the coast of Southern California as a result of a significant backlog at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The environmental group publishing the data, Skytruth, says tracking information for the ship MSC DANIT, which originated in Panama, showed it moving back and forth across the path of the pipeline multiple times during the storm, potentially dragging its anchor along the seabed and inflicting initial damage.
The new information supports investigators’ theory that a ship’s anchor may have caught the pipeline and pulled it up and across the sea floor.
MSC DANIT’s anchor may have indeed caused leakage and weakened the structural integrity of the pipeline, but how and why it suddenly ruptured in early October remains unknown.
KNX has reached out to Skytruth for additional information and will update this story as it is received.
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