State fish and wildlife officials have launched an investigation into a new oil spill at the Phillips 66 refinery marine terminal in Rodeo.
The spill in San Pablo Bay was discovered Monday morning and comes as the energy giant pursues a major expansion of the number of oil tankers that unload crude at the facility. It's the first spill since another one in September 2016 at the same terminal that was believed to have been the source of noxious fumes that sickened dozens of people in Vallejo.
"These kinds of small spills are like death to the Bay from a thousand small cuts," said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, one of the organizations hoping to block the refinery's expansion proposal.
"After their spill last fall, we would have hoped that they would have improved their operations to better prevent oil spills like this," Choksi-Chugh said in an interview Tuesday. "This spill is definitely another black mark for Phillips 66 in their proposal to expand."
The refinery told the Governor's Office of Emergency Services about the spill shortly before 9 a.m. Monday. A report filed with the office said a spill of a gas and oil mixture had created a 20-by-20-foot rainbow-like sheen in the water.