Six Months After Oil Spilled Into California Tributary, Families Worry the Cleanup Was Never Finished
Key takeaways
- The unmistakable smell of gas subsumed him.
- But it wasn’t, it was oil,” Higbee said Monday, exactly six months after rivulets of crude oil ran into a waterway near his home.
- The oil—which contaminated at least three-quarters of a mile of a remote tributary of Sisar Creek—came from the top of the hill next to Higbee’s house in Santa Paula.
Why this matters: environmental and climate reporting with long-term consequences.
May 23, 2026 Share This Article Republish Santa Paula resident Ethan Higbee walks the area where an oil spill took place six months earlier in Ventura County. He smells residue he worries is oil remains. Credit: Steven Rodas/Inside Climate News Related As Climate Disasters Create an Insurance Crisis, a California Bill Seeks to Make Fossil Fuel Companies Pay Green California’s Big Oil Problem Fifteen Years After Largest U.S. Offshore Oil Spill, Researchers Reveal Most-Polluting Rigs Share This Article Republish Most Popular Wildfire Crews Race to Keep Fierce California Blaze From Former Nuclear Reactor Site EPA Claims ‘Overwhelming Rejection’ of EVs as It Moves to Loosen Air Pollution Rules Top Climate Scientists Accuse the Livestock Industry of Pushing Fuzzy Math to Downplay Its Climate Warming Emissions SANTA PAULA, Calif.—As he slowly pulled his beige van into the driveway following a trip to the hardware store for garden supplies, Ethan Higbee didn’t suspect anything was wrong.
The unmistakable smell of gas subsumed him.
“I heard rushing, gushing water. What I thought was water. But it wasn’t, it was oil,” Higbee said Monday, exactly six months after rivulets of crude oil ran into a waterway near his home.