Refugio, Santa Barbara Oil Spill

Guardian UK: California oil spill despoils coastline in tar-blackened reprise of 1960s disaster - An area known as the Galápagos of the north is again mired in foul-smelling black goo as newer operators exploit depleted oil resources amid patchy regulation

The Texas-based operator, Plains All American Pipeline, has estimated that up to 105,000 gallons leached into a storm drain before the supply was cut off, and that about 20,000 gallons of that travelled the extra quarter-mile to the ocean.