The Orange County oil spill on October 1, 2021, is an oil spill that deposited crude oil onto popular Southern California beaches on the West Coast of the United States. While residents reported smelling fumes, a ship noticed an oil slick that evening and reported it to federal authorities. When oil from an underwater pipeline in the waters of coastal Orange County began washing ashore, officials in Huntington Beach closed the typically crowded beach in the evening of October 2. The U.S. Coast Guard estimated that spill covered 8,320 acres (3,370 ha) of the ocean's surface as they monitored it several times daily from the air. Investigations found a 17.7-mile (28.5 km) pipeline connecting offshore oil platforms with the shore had been displaced, possibly by being dragged by a ship's anchor