California beach to reopen 2 months after oil spill

A California beach fouled by an oil spill will reopen to swimmers and campers two months after a pipeline ruptured and spewed thousands of gallons of crude along the coast, officials said.

State Parks rangers toured the shoreline west of Santa Barbara on Thursday and cleared Refugio State Beach to reopen July 17, AP reported.

Crews still need to finish scraping oil off cobblestones with wire brushes and putty knives before the public can use the beach next week. Hard-to-access areas will be off limits as cleanup continues, but officials said the work would not affect beachgoers.

An underground pipeline operated by Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline ruptured May 19, releasing up to 101,000 gallons of oil. About 21,000 gallons flowed into a drainage ditch, coated Refugio beach and washed out to the Pacific Ocean.