Company hopes to remove ruptured oil pipeline by Tuesday
Officials from Plains All American Pipeline say they hope the broken section of a pipeline that spilled oil along the California Coast can be removed for investigation by Tuesday.
The company on Monday downgraded the amount of oil that may have spilled. The new estimate of the worst-case volume of oil released is 101,000 gallons. That's about 4,200 gallons less than previously thought.
Plains All American is still measuring the spill as it cleans up along the Santa Barbara County coastline and recovers oil from the pipeline.
Oil blackened area beaches and created a 10-square-mile slick in the ocean after the onshore pipeline ruptured May 19.
Officials say one sea lion, nine pelicans and untold numbers of fish have been killed.
Two public beaches are closed until at least June 4.
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In this Saturday, May 23, 2015 photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, boat crew members work to clean up oil and oil-impacted marine vegetation from the water near Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif. Oil spilled from a pipeline resulted in the cleanup efforts at the onshore site and along several miles of California coastline. (Chief Petty Officer David Mosley/U.S. Coast Guard via AP) -
In this Saturday, May 23, 2015, photo released by the U.S. Coast Guard, Boat crew members work to clean up oil from the water while shore-side workers clean along the impacted beaches at Refugio State Beach, north of Goleta, Calif. Oil spilled from a pipeline resulted in the cleanup efforts at the onshore site and along several miles of California coastline. (Chief Petty Officer David Mosley/U.S. Coast Guard via AP) -
This May 22, 2015 photo from the U.S. Coast Guard shows animal care experts at SeaWorld San Diego attending to an oiled sea lion, which was found Friday at Refugio Beach near Goleta, Calif. The pipeline that leaked thousands of gallons of oil on the Santa Barbara coast was the only pipe of its kind in the county not required to have an automatic shutoff valve because of a court fight nearly three decades ago, a county official said. The original owner of the pipeline skirted the county requirement by successfully arguing in court in the late 1980s that it should be subject to federal oversight because the pipeline is part of an interstate network and auto shutoff valves are not required by federal regulators. (PA2 Seth Johnson/U.S. Coast Guard via AP) -
Staff members and volunteers work to clean oil off a brown pelican at the International Bird Rescue office in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, on Friday, May 22, 2015. A broken onshore pipeline in Santa Barbara, Calif., spewed oil down a storm drain and into the ocean for several hours Tuesday before it was shut off. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) -
Staff members and volunteers work to clean oil off a brown pelican at the International Bird Rescue office in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, on Friday, May 22, 2015. A broken onshore pipeline in near Santa Barbara, Calif., spewed oil down a storm drain and into the ocean for several hours Tuesday before it was shut off. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
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