Refugio Overflight Observation of Oil - May 21 to June 3, 2015 (500 Meter Buffer)

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.

This layer represents an estimated areal extent of oil based on point observations of oiling from flyovers during the response of the Refugio Beach Oil Spill (RBOS). Point observations were buffered at 500 meters to create the areal oiling extent.