USA: Aging equipment, spills test ties between oil, California
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hoping to recover a lost anchor chain, a work boat dragged a grappling hook along the seabed near an oil platform off the Southern California coast. But it hooked something else -- a pipeline carrying crude oil from the towering rig to shore.
Once snagged, the 197-foot (60-meter) boat dragged the pipeline until it snapped on one of the drilling platform’s legs. The gushing oil created a slick that ran for miles along the Ventura County coast northwest of Los Angeles.