California oil spill "worst-case scenario" estimate sits at 105,000 gallons

Alan Devall at Reuters:

Tuesday’s rupture released as much as 2,500 barrels (105,000 gallons) of crude oil, five times more than the initial estimate, according to a “worst-case scenario” presented by pipeline owner Plains All American Pipeline. It said up to a fifth of the spill had reached the ocean.

The 24-inch-wide (61-cm-wide) pipeline, which runs underground parallel to a coastal highway west of Santa Barbara, inexplicably burst on Tuesday morning, belching crude oil down a canyon, under a culvert and onto Refugio State Beach before it flowed into the Pacific, U.S. Coast Guard officials said.