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Feds order pipeline company to clean up SB coastline & Investors React

Federal authorities on Wednesday issued a cleanup order to the company whose underground pipeline last week spilled thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean and marred several miles of Santa Barbara County coastline. “Our action today is to make sure the oil response work continues until the Santa Barbara County coastline is… Read more »

Graduations and New Blog up and Running!

Our team has been relatively quiet as the members have been focusing on their individual research summaries, final projects, and preparing our laboratory move this summer! We unfortunately are losing Christopher Wells and Blake Swendrowski from the team, but they will be staying on as volunteers! The laboratory will be moving to a brand new, […]

Holiday or no…

Our teams are mustering for another field day of monitoring the ecological and social impacts of this spill. Much of the genesis of our current Sandy Beach work is grounded in our efforts to bring folks into field science who would not otherwise be engaged in a so-called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) discipline…. Read more »

The worth of our Beaches

Sandy Beaches are everything to us here in Southern California, a central pillar of both our cultural identity and economic engine.  They are where we birthed surf culture (on beaches like Huntington and Surfrider), invented beach volleyball (on beaches like Manhattan Beach and Redondo), trained our young people to fight the axis powers of WWII… Read more »

Oil at Coal Oil Point: Pipeline or Seep?

    The University of California’s Natural Reserve System (NRS) is an incredible network of protected areas spanning the state of California.  These areas provide much needed spaces wherein researchers can study California ecosystems minimally impacted (and yes, I know that is a relative term) by our voracious appetite to burn, pave, and manipulate all we… Read more »

Oil Spill Devastates CA Coast: HuffPost Live

I was on Huffington Post Live this afternoon.  I wasn’t able to finish my thought (Real Housewives were apparently on deck), but if I had, I would have noted that our clean-up technology hasn’t kept pace with our drilling/extraction technology.  And that you can have all the regulations you like, but it is the government… Read more »