Cleanup crews fanned out on Wednesday across an oil-fouled California beach to scoop up gobs of petroleum spewed from a ruptured pipeline in the largest oil spill to hit the pristine but energy-rich Santa Barbara coastline in nearly two decades.
The breach was believed to have spilled up to 2,500 barrels (105,000 gallons) of crude petroleum, five times more than initially estimated after Tuesday's rupture, the pipeline company said in an update posted online on Wednesday.
Plains All American Pipeline called its latest estimate "a worst-case scenario," based on the pipeline's flow rate and other indicators.