Booms, skimmers among tools used to cleanup from oil spills

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Crews have deployed skimmers and floating barriers known as booms as they try stop oil from a massive spill in Southern California from further fouling the beaches, wildlife and protected wetlands of the area. Authorities have multiple tools and techniques they can deploy to try to slow the oil from spreading and then cleaning it up from the waters and land areas – methods they’ve honed in decades of work trying to mitigate the damage from such disasters. At least 126,000 gallons had spilled into the waters as of Sunday. Contractors in small boats deployed the skimmers and booms, hoping to keep more oil from getting into the wetland Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach.