State Attorney General Rob Bonta's office is investigating the oil spill that fouled the waters off Orange County a little over a week ago.
Bonta made the announcement Monday while standing alongside U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at Huntington State Beach — not far from the pipeline leak that pumped tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the water over the past week and a half.
Bonta said his investigators will partner with federal authorities, whose probe is being led by the U.S. Coast Guard and local officials including Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.
"I'll be taking a leadership role, working with our partners ... we're committed to a collaborative, cooperative approach," Bonta said.
The attorney general said there's an important role for state prosecutors, who could pursue civil or criminal charges, or both.
The oil spill was reported to federal authorities on the morning of Oct. 2. By that time, as much as 131,000 gallons had seeped from a pipeline that runs from an offshore platform to the Port of Long Beach. The pipeline is operated by a subsidiary of Amplify Energy Corp., based in Texas.
"When we get involved and when we use our tools, we hope that we will continue to do what we've always done, which is be accurate, be complete, be thorough, be objective and, most importantly, achieve accountability where necessary and realize justice," Bonta said in announcing his office's investigation.
The attorney general’s remarks came after he and Padilla took an air tour of the affected region.
Orange County beaches reopened to the public Monday, and Padilla said the view from the sky was promising.
"It seemed the cleanup operations are making tremendous, tremendous progress. Trust me, we looked but did not see any big, you know, patches of oil on the surface of the water and the areas that we covered," he said.
Padilla took the opportunity to push his colleagues in Congress to pass a ban on new offshore oil drilling in federal waters. The state of California already bars new leases in the water it controls, and the House of Representatives included a federal ban in its recently passed budget bill.
Padilla said the Senate should do the same.
"You know many of us, myself included, have been calling for a ban on offshore oil drilling in federal waters for a long time now," he said. "This is just the most recent reminder of why it's necessary and why it's urgent, and we have a prime opportunity to accomplish exactly that through this budget reconciliation bill in the next couple of weeks."
Also on Monday, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon announced the creation of a legislative committee charged with investigating the cause of the spill and its impacts and recommending any changes to state law that could help prevent leaks in the future.
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