Of the $50 million Amplify Energy will pay to settle the lawsuit, $34 million will go to a class of fishers, $9 million will go to property owners and about $7 million goes to the tourism industry such as whale watching companies.
Now officials will turn to contacting all of those who were affected by the oil spill to make a claim. Direct notices will go property owners and the attorneys have many contacts within the fishing industry, but it will be tougher to notify all of the tourism industry victims, Aitken said.
The company agreed to improve its leak detection system. For the next four years, the company will notify the state's Office of Emergency Services "of each leak detection alarm." The company will also "conduct actual visual inspections of the pipeline semiannually rather than one inspection every two years as required by law," for the next four years.
The deal clears the way for a trial against shipping companies to begin, Aitken said. A tentative trial date is set for April. The plaintiffs in the class action has sued the shipping companies and other related defendants, and Amplify Energy has its own lawsuit against the shipping companies. The pipeline, which is used to carry crude oil from several offshore drilling platforms to a processing plant in Long Beach, began leaking the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2021, but the companies continued pumping oil through the line until the following morning, authorities said last year.
The leak forced the cancellation of the popular Huntington Beach Airshow, which was underway when the spill was detected. Beaches were closed up and down the Orange County coast as crews worked to contain the crude oil.
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