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U.S. Coast Guard investigates oil slick off California coast

By Dan Whitcomb and Alex Dobuzinskis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard was investigating a large, patchy oil sheen that appeared off the Southern California coast west of Santa Barbara on Wednesday, not far from the site of a petroleum pipeline spill in May, agency officials said. The slick, which stretched about 2 miles (3 km) along the coast about 1,000 yards (meters) from shore, was spotted off Goleta State Beach, but the origin of the sheen was unknown, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Sondra-Kay Kneen. A Coast Guard helicopter team determined the oil sheen was too thin to be recovered and would be allowed to "dissipate naturally," she Kneen said. In May, as much as 2,400 barrels of crude oil was spilled onto a pristine beach and into the Pacific about 15 miles (24 km) west of Goleta when a pipeline ruptured along the coast. There was no immediate indication the two incidents were linked. "We don't have a definite source yet," Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrea Anderson said of the latest oil sheen. David Zaniboni, a Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman, told local KABC-TV that his agency also had not identified the source of the slick and as a result was not calling the incident an oil spill. The Coast Guard urged the public to stay away from the sheen and to report any additional oil sightings. Kneen said no beaches in the area have been closed. Zaniboni told KABC the Santa Barbara Channel, an area dotted with about two dozen offshore drilling platforms, regularly experiences natural oil seepage, but that firefighters were called when two kayakers came ashore after crossing into black oil in the water. "All I can go by is what we were told by the kayakers, and they were saying this was more than they've ever seen," he said. Meredith Mathews, a spokeswoman for Plains All American, owner of the coastal pipeline that ruptured in May, said the sheen could not have come from one of its pipelines because it does not operate any underwater pipes in the area. Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp said the latest oil did not come from their operations. The Center for Biological Diversity said the slick adds to environmental concerns raised by offshore energy development. “We’ll see spill after spill if we don’t shut down these aging oil platforms and pipelines," Miyoko Sakashita, a spokeswoman for the conservation group, said in a statement. (Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Rory Carroll in San Francisco,; Editing by Sandra Maler and Mohammad Zargham)