Lujan Disclaims Role in Narrowing Tanker Sea Lanes

Interior Secretary Manuel J. Lujan Jr. said Wednesday that he was unaware that his department had asked the Coast Guard to trim tanker-traffic safety lanes off the California coast to accommodate more offshore drilling platforms, but he promised to look into the situation.

His promise, however, was not enough to appease environmentalists and Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), who vigorously opposes the 60% smaller sea lanes because they would, Boxer asserted, “set up the perfect circumstances for a devastating crash.”

The controversy centers on the formal designation of sea lanes off a 180-mile stretch of California coast from Santa Barbara to Ano Nuevo State Reserve near San Francisco. The Coast Guard in 1982 proposed making the northbound and southbound lanes a total of five miles wide.

But the Coast Guard last month said wide lanes are “not acceptable to (the Mineral Management Service, an agency of the Interior Department) because a large number of offshore tracts would be totally excluded from oil exploration and development.” Instead, the Coast Guard has proposed one-mile-wide lanes separated by a two-mile-wide median in which oil platforms would be allowed.

Boxer and environmental groups, including the Oceanic Society, denounced the narrower, mile-wide lanes on Wednesday, noting that the Exxon Valdez had strayed 1 1/2 miles outside normal shipping lanes in Alaska before it caused the worst tanker disaster in the nation’s history in March.

“We know there have been 93 such crashes of vessels and oil rigs between 1970 and 1982, so this is a ridiculous proposal,” Boxer said. “Once again (the Mineral Management Service) is pressing its pro-drilling views on (other) federal agencies and sacrificing the safety of our coastal environment for oil company profits.”

‘Bad Policy’

“In the wake of the Exxon Valdez disaster,” said Steven Hopcraft of the Oceanic Society, “it is incredible that we would alter safety procedures and policy priorities for the convenience of the oil industry. It is bad policy, bad science and bad government.”

Hopcraft delivered his criticism of the Interior Department as Lujan addressed local employees of the National Park Service. Lujan was in the Bay Area to inspect the Presidio of San Francisco, a historic military installation that will be abandoned by the Army as a cost-saving measure and turned over to the National Park Service for inclusion in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Lujan, who has been accused of being ignorant on issues facing his department, plans to visit Yosemite National Park today and the Mojave Desert on Friday. He came to California to give a commencement address Saturday at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, which he attended as a freshman.