The beach will be open tomorrow at 6 a.m., officials announced at a press conference about the oil washing ashore this afternoon in Manhattan Beach.
“As long as we don’t have tar patties washing up, we are fairly comfortable it would be safe for the public to enjoy the beach tomorrow morning,” said Mike Rogers from the Los Angeles County Public Health Department.
The U.S. Coast Guard wants to wait through a full cycle of tides before opening the beach, said Captain Charlene Downey at the press conference, which was attended by LA County Supervisor Don Knabe.
Officials still ask that the public stay east of lifeguard towers until that time, to help with the cleanup and for safety reasons.
“We would not like the public to come in contact with petroleum product,” said Rogers. “It’s not a healthy thing to do.”
Still, some surfers were out in the waves off Manhattan Beach Thursday.
Downey said they didn’t know the source of the oil, and may not know for a few days or a week.
“We have not ruled anything out,” she said.
She said that Chevron, which has an oil refinery in El Segundo, the northern border of the impacted area, had been “very cooperative since the beginning.”
She also said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was assessing if it was possible that the oil came from last week’s oil spill off Santa Barbara.
The company that the Coast Guard has contracted to clean up the beach, Ocean Blue Environmental Services, has picked up about 30 cubic yards of tar so far, Downey said, indicating a giant red dumpster that sat on the beach behind her.
“We had significant progress overnight,” she said.
Sau Garcia from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said they still hadn’t gotten any reports of animals being impacted by the oil. If the public does see an affected animal, he said to call 877-823-6926.
