Refugio Additional Forensic Matches

On May 19, 2015, a pipeline owned ruptured in Santa Barbara County, California, near Refugio State Beach. An estimated 21,000 gallons of the oil flowed overland from the break site into the Pacific Ocean and spread across the marine environment. NOAA and our state and federal partners are investigating these impacts and will determine the amount of restoration needed to return the environment to the condition it was in before the spill and to compensate the public for environmental degradation from the time of the spill until recovery.

As a supplement to previous, independent chemical fingerprinting studies, this collaborative study was undertaken to identify the sources of crude oil comprising 22 oil/oily samples collected shortly (one to 14 days) following the May 19, 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill (RBOS) and determine the character of
seven natural seep oils. This layer represents the locations of matches to line 901 oil found within the study.