Not Again: How a 1969 Oil Spill Devastated the Santa Barbara Coast

It takes a disaster to shock us out of complacency. In January 1969, an oil well blew up off the coast of Santa Barbara, spilling an estimated three million gallons of black goo into the ocean--then the largest oil spill in U.S. waters ever. As images of dead birds and blackened beaches flooded the media, the modern environmental movement was born.