EPA Letter Asks Interior Dept. to Curtail Offshore Oil Drilling

Concern over potential oil spills has prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to recommend curtailing an Interior Department plan to open the Northern California coast to oil and gas development, an EPA official said Tuesday.

EPA officials sent their recommendations in a letter to the department last month, criticizing Interior Secretary Donald Hodel for not considering small spills that could harm plants and wildlife along parts of the Mendocino County coast.

Hodel has proposed developing oil and gas on 1.1 million acres off the northern coast, where officials estimate there may be as many as 790 million barrels of oil.

The EPA letter, one of many submitted on the proposal, points to a study by Mines and Mineral Management, a division of the Interior Department. It found that “if there is oil off the coast . . . there is a 75% chance of a spill greater than 1,000 barrels and a 47% chance of a spill greater than 10,000 barrels,” EPA spokeswoman Virginia Donahue said.

Donahue said the letter recommended that the Interior Department consider deleting any tracts off the coast of southern Mendocino County from development because the study found the area has a 57% chance of being affected by an oil spill.