California oil pipeline repair Friday

The oil company accused this week of negligence for failing to properly respond to an October oil spill off the coast of Southern California will begin permanent repair work, according to leaked documents reviewed by NBC News, but critics say the work authorized appears rushed.

As early as Friday morning, divers will descend about 160 feet below the surface to begin what the documents call a “steel patch” over a cracked section of pipe that was temporarily repaired after the Oct. 1 spill. 

The patch is intended to allow for a thorough cleaning and flushing of the pipeline before two large sections of pipe—totaling nearly 90 meters—are removed from the seafloor and eventually replaced at a later date.

The plan was distributed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to state and federal regulators no more than 48 hours before work began and required agencies to notify the Corps within one day if they had comments on the work. 

The listed contact person for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, a federal regulatory agency that oversees offshore oil work, was out of the office during that time when contacted by NBC News, according to an automated response.

Later phases of the design call for putting in new pipe sections and eventually placing concrete mats over them for protection. A spokesman for pipeline owner Amplify Energy said so far only the first part of the job has been approved by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

One critic points to the emergency repair process as an example of a comfortable relationship between industry and regulators.

Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Director and Senior Counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the repair plan should have gone through a permitting process that allowed for more authorities and public oversight.

She likened the permit decision to a "Christmas present" for Amplify Energy.

"This looks like a case of the Army Corps essentially acting as a customer service to the oil company to get the pipeline and platform back up and running, rather than providing strict oversight to protect against water contamination," Sakashita said.

A representative of one of the other agencies listed in the document, the California Coastal Commission, told NBC News by email that "Commission staff responded to the notice and expressed concern to the Corps about the inclusion of both the proposed temporary and permanent repair projects.” Under a single emergency authorization.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday evening.

In its request for the emergency work, amplify stated that the repair would “address an imminent threat to life or property” by securing the pipeline against further oil spills. 

In public statements in the days following the spill, the company's CEO, Martyn Willshire, said the pipeline had been “siphoned” at both ends to “keep all crude oil out of the pipeline.”

A 13-inch crack was eventually identified as the source of the leak, and how it got there is still under investigation. Authorities believe a ship's anchor may have snagged the pipeline and pulled it out of position a year before the spill.

Oil slicks are reported on the water twice in recent weeks, the most recent on Tuesday. Authorities have not provided a clear source.

The spilled pipeline is part of a complex that began development in the 1970s, and according to documents filed at the time, some parts of the system are now a decade past their expected decommissioning date. 

This week, Amplify Energy and its subsidiaries were charged in an indictment with negligent oil discharge that could result in criminal penalties in the millions of dollars. A grand jury said in the indictment that the companies failed to properly respond to spill detection alarms and that crews were not properly trained on the system.

In response, the company said in a statement that the system did not work as intended, indicating a leak at a location that personnel could not detect, and that "had the crew known there was actually an oil spill in the water, they would have. Shut down the pipeline immediately.”