Refugio Beach Oil Spill Chemical Analysis Results for Damage Assessment

NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration provides chemical analysis data from the 2015 Refugio Beach oil spill in Santa Barbara County, California. The data supports the Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA) and Damage Assessment and Restoration Plan (DARP), containing results from analyzed environmental samples. It includes California OEHHA fish closure and NRDA chemistry data.

Use Cases

• Assessing chemical contamination levels in the marine environment based on the described sample analysis.
• Supporting fish consumption advisories and closure decisions based on the OEHHA fish closure data.
• Quantifying environmental degradation for restoration planning as part of the NRDA process.
• Modeling the spread and impact of the 21,000-gallon oil spill described in the incident summary.

Strengths

• Data is tied to a specific, documented environmental incident on May 19, 2015.
• Produced by NOAA, a federal agency, for official damage assessment and restoration planning.
• Includes data from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is packaged in ZIP and PDF formats, which may require extraction and parsing.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Samples collected in support of the Refugio Beach Oil Spill Natural Resources Damage Assessment (NRDA).

Time Range

Likely centered around and following the May 19, 2015 spill event.

Freshness

Last updated 2026 03 13 22:26:11.270383; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Santa Barbara County, California, near Refugio State Beach and the Pacific Ocean.