Refugio State Beach (

Chumash Chumash may refer to: *Chumash (Judaism), a Hebrew word for the Pentateuch, used in Judaism *Chumash people, a Native American people of southern California *Chumashan languages, indigenous languages of California See also *Chumash traditional n ...

: Qasil, "Beautiful") is a protected state

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

park in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States, approximately west of Santa Barbara. One of three state parks along the

Gaviota Coast The Gaviota Coast in Santa Barbara County, California is a rural coastline along the Santa Barbara Channel roughly bounded by the city of Goleta, California, Goleta on the south and the north boundary of the county on the north. This last undeve ...

, it is west of El Capitán State Beach. During the summer months, the Junior Life Guard program resides at the beach during the day. The

Refugio oil spill The Refugio oil spill on May 19, 2015, deposited of crude oil onto one of the most biologically diverse areas of the West Coast of the United States. The corroded pipeline blamed for the spill closed indefinitely, resulting in financial impac ...

occurred just north of the park in 2015 when a pipeline carrying

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

ruptured. The spill went into a culvert that ran under

US 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...

and into the ocean. The spill spread over of coastline, including Refugio and El Capitán state beaches. The parks were closed during the clean-up, including during the typically busy

Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

weekend. The pipeline which caused the disaster is no longer in service.

References

External links

"Refugio State Beach"
California Department of Parks and Recreation. Retrieved April 27, 2017. Beaches of Southern California California State Beaches Parks in Santa Barbara County, California Beaches of Santa Barbara County, California {{SantaBarbaraCountyCA-geo-stub