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News briefs from California's Central Coast
| Monday, Sep 11 2006 8:15 AM
Last Updated: Monday, Sep 11 2006 8:15 AM
Researchers have been examining a sticky situation on Santa Barbara area beaches.
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Oil and gas seeping off Coal Oil Point, where huge reservoirs of petroleum are buried beneath the ocean floor, is being carried to the beach as tar.
And University of California, Santa Barbara, researchers say surfers and beach lovers are 10 times as likely to have a bad tar day in summer as in winter because the prevailing sea breezes blow onshore.
Researcher Tonya Del Sontro said the average daily mass of tar on a 250-yard stretch of beach weighed 20 pounds, compared to an average 2.2 pounds on winter days.
"July is the worst month for tar," Del Sontro said. "People were coming out of the water with tar in their teeth and hair."
About 100 barrels of oil, or 4,200 gallons, are released from cracks in the seabed each day off Coal Point. Over a seven-year period, the oil released from the seeps would equal the size of an Exxon Valdez spill.
"It's a natural oil spill," Del Sontro said.
Oil slicks are commonplace on the ocean surface off Coal Oil Point. Most of the oil sinks and disperses, but in the summer, the slicks stay on the surface longer, growing thicker and crustier as the sun beats down.
Onshore breezes are stronger and they carry pieces of tar onto the beach.
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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) - A federal immigration sweep in Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Holister led to the arrest of 107 people for immigration violations.
Those arrested during the sweeps were immigrants with final orders of deportation, criminals and other immigration violators, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lori Haley said.
Forty-four have already been returned to their home countries.
"We know who we are going to look for," Haley said. "They have been ordered to leave by a judge and they are ignoring those orders."
Most of those rounded up Thursday and Friday were from Mexico. Others were from El Salvador, Guatemala and India, she said.
Nineteen arrested in the operation dubbed Return to Sender have criminal convictions including robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and sex offenses against minors.
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SALINAS, Calif. (AP) - County officials abruptly closed the asbestos-plagued north wing of the Monterey County courthouse.
Some courtroom operations shifted Monday to alternate locations.
Officials decided Saturday to immediately close the north wing after several spot inspections of areas between ceiling tiles and the ceiling found evidence that old asbestos insulation is disintegrating.
"This is a proactive, preventative move to safeguard the public and employees," county public works director Ron Lundquist said. "We found this problem before it became a hazard."
An information board with court schedules and locations were posted in the courtyard in front of the north wing on Church Street.
Asbestos was commonly used as insulation when the north wing was built in the 1960s. Since then, however, medical researchers have learned that if inhaled, asbestos fibers can lodge in the lungs and eventually cause cancer.
The north wing is undergoing remodeling that has periodically caused asbestos fibers to be released into the air.
"Finishing the west wing quickly means the courts will be scattered in different locations for only a short time," said Lundquist, who added he hopes court services will reopen in the west wing Sept. 19.