GOLETA, Calif. (AP) - Images of sticky black beaches and stories of the stink of oil from a broken coastal pipeline shouldn’t force canceled plans for the vast majority of tourists planning ocean vacations in California.
People who had immediate plans at two popular state-owned beaches - Refugio and El Capitan - need to make new ones. Those spots in Santa Barbara County are closed through Memorial Day weekend while they’re cleaned up.
However, they represent just a segment of the beaches in Santa Barbara County, the pristine and often pricey stretch of coastline whose boosters bill it as “America’s Riviera.”
The slick from the pipeline, which burst and spewed into the ocean on Tuesday, now covers nine miles of ocean, but it’s diluting as it spreads and is still 15 miles from Santa Barbara itself.
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