Approximately 21,000 gallons of crude oil dumped into the ocean from a broken pipeline on Tuesday around 12pm local time, the USCG reported.
The damaged pipeline has created an oil spill overflowing off the central California Coast along with Refugio Beach in Santa Barbara.
Around 3pm local time, the oil spillage source was located and secured by the Coast Guard teams.
According to Andrea Anderson, a Coast Guard Officer, the pipeline which runs parallel to Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, left a slick extending for miles along Refugio State Beach and stretching about 50 yards into the water.
The 24-inch pipeline is owned and operated by Plains All-American Pipeline, which is a fuel storage and pipeline transportation company, based in Houston.
An Incident Command Post has been established by the U.S. Coast Guard to oversee the clean-up operations of the oil spill. Vessels from the nonprofit collective Clean Seas, which is an oil spill response company, were being used in the oil cleanup.
The U.S. Coast Guard is currently working in a collaboration with California Office of Emergency Services, California Fish and Wildlife, local fire departments and Exxon Mobil.