A pipeline owner has agreed to a $230 million dollar settlement to fishermen, fish processors, and coastal property owners in connection with a massive 2015 oil spill in Santa Barbara County.
Plains All American Pipeline didn’t admit liability in the deal, which follows several years of legal battles.
Plains agreed to pay $184 million to fishermen and fish processors, and $46 million to coastal property owners. The deal still needs to get federal court approval, with a hearing set for June 10.
More than 140,000 gallons of oil spilled in the rupture on the Gaviota Coast. Federal investigators found that Plains made a number of preventable errors. Hundreds of birds, and marine mammals were killed by the oil.
Plains has filed applications to build replacement pipelines in the region.
The pipeline break forced the shutdown of four offshore oil platforms in the county, because it left them with no way to move oil. One of them, Platform Holly, is being decommissioned. Exxon-Mobil’s effort to use tanker trucks to temporarily move oil from its three platforms was rejected by Santa Barbara County, but the company is now suing over that decision.