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Image showing portion of dry creekbed fouled by oil spill at a Chevron well site in Kern County. California Department of Conservation
Image showing portion of dry creekbed fouled by oil spill at a Chevron well site in Kern County.  (California Department of Conservation)
The California Report

PHOTOS: Major Crude Spill at Chevron Well Site in Kern County

The California Report

PHOTOS: Major Crude Spill at Chevron Well Site in Kern County

Ted Goldberg
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State oil and gas regulators have released a series of photos of a Kern County well site where about 800,000 gallons of crude oil and water have spilled from a Chevron well site.

Kern County Oil Spill

The area fouled by the incident is in the Cymric Oil Field, near the town of McKittrick and 35 miles west of Bakersfield. Photographs, including an image from a state Department of Conservation drone, show the spill has inundated a roughly 1,000-foot stretch of an unnamed dry creek bed.

The flows — called surface expressions — began adjacent to a Chevron steam injection well on May 10, halted for a time, then started up again on June 8 and once more on June 23. No new material has flowed from the site since last week.

California regulators say crews are preparing to haul away contaminated soil from the site. A licensed engineer plans to survey the area to determine when it will be safe to bring in workers and equipment to do that job, according to the state's Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.

Chevron and DOGGR officials are working to determine the composition of the spill. DOGGR, which has ordered Chevron to "take all measures" to stop the flow, has estimated that about one-third of the spill, or about 265,000 gallons, is oil.

Below: Images released Tuesday by the California Department of Conservation:

Image showing portion of dry creekbed fouled by oil spill at a Chevron well site in Kern County. (California Department of Conservation)
Image showing containment berm and northwest end of dry creekbed fouled by oil spill at a Chevron well site in Kern County. (California Department of Conservation)
"Surface expressions" that have spilled nearly 800,000 of a crude oil-water mixture into a dry creek bed in Kern County. The incident, adjacent to a well site operated by Chevron, began in May and has occurred in an oil field where steam is injected deep into the ground to make crude petroleum easier to extract. (California Department of Conservation)
Steam vents from the ground at the site of "surface expressions" that have spilled nearly 800,000 of a crude oil-water mixture into a dry creek bed in Kern County. The incident, adjacent to a well site operated by Chevron, began in May and has occurred in an oil field where steam is injected deep into the ground to make crude petroleum easier to extract. (California Department of Conservation)
Drone image showing site of oil spill at Chevron well site in Kern County. (California Department of Conservation)

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