Authorities scramble to clean-up California’s worst oil spill in years

California authorities and emergency responders were rushing Monday to cover the damage caused by a massive oil spill on the coastal town of Huntington Beach which he described as "an environmental disaster".

Popular beaches along the 24-mile-long coastline south of Los Angeles have been closed from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach, city officials have reported as workers scrambling to clean up one of California's major floods for decades.

Fishing operations in the area have been ordered to be halted, and wildlife killed as a result of a 480,000-liter spill of unused material after production began leaking Saturday morning in what officials said was a pipeline connected to a sea rig rig.

The U.S. Coast Guard's response plan said Monday morning that less than 3% of the spilled plume oil - estimated to be 5.8 nautical miles (10km) long - was found, and that more than a kilometer of oil-filled booms had been used.