Cleanup Crews Use Plan Created After the Valdez Calamity

When word of alarge oil spill reached U.S. Coast Guard headquarters Wednesday, officials put into place an updated local contingency plan developed as a direct result of the Exxon Valdez disaster last year in Alaska.

The Coast Guard said the new plan enabled it to immediately react when it received word that the American Trader was leaking thousands of gallons of crude oil near some of Orange County’s most popular beaches and most sensitive coastal wildlife areas.

“I hate to say this, but this is an excellent exercise for us,” Coast Guard Cmdr. Gary Gregory said.

Meanwhile, Clean Coastal Waters, an oil industry cleanup cooperative based in Long Beach, dispatched an oil containment boom to the American Trader shortly after the spill was reported at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. It formed a perimeter around parts of the spreading slick.

In addition, American Trading Transportation Co., which owns the tanker, sent a cleanup coordinator and an assistant to help with operations. They were scheduled to arrive early today.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists were put on alert as booms went up at three environmentally sensitive sites: the Santa Ana River mouth and Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach, and Newport Bay in Newport Beach.

Steve Goodbred, an environmental specialist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said several endangered species could be harmed. They include lightfooted clapper rails in estuaries at Bolsa Chica State Beach and California brown pelicans which feed throughout the area. Sea gulls and migratory birds called alcids--sometimes referred to as northern penguins--also could be at risk.

“We absolutely have some significant concerns,” Goodbred said.

He said that if there are “oiled birds, we’re going to need to mobilize facilities to clean the birds . . . warm ‘em up, fluff ‘em up, put a band on ‘em--and see if they make it.”

Judi Jones, a marine mammal expert at the Sea Lion Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, said she did not believe that the spill would threaten dolphins, gray whales, seals or sea lions, which can easily swim away from the oil slick.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Chris Desmond said that if the oil reaches Huntington Beach it will be much simpler to clean up than the slick that washed up on Alaska’s shore after the Valdez accident.

“We scoop the sand up and remove it until it’s all taken up. It’s not like cleaning it off rocks in Alaska, where you have to take each individual rock,” he said.

So far, Gregory said, the response to the spill has gone according to plan and the Coast Guard is gathering its resources on the West Coast to clean up the oil over the next few days.

He said the approval process has begun for using dispersants--chemicals that break up oil on the surface and cause it to form globs that are supposed to sink. But Gregory said that while the Coast Guard wanted dispersants as an option, the seas were not rough enough to make their use worthwhile Wednesday night.

Dispersants also are controversial because they can harm sea life, something that is taken into consideration during the approval process. Federal authorities must approve the use of dispersants.

The new cleanup procedures, which are being put to their first test with the American Trader spill, specify the role of each agency. Desmond said that while ship owners and operators bear the burden of the cleanup, the Coast Guard must enforce the plan.

The Coast Guard makes sure the owners dispatch commercial cleanup crews to the area immediately after the spill. “Now they’ve got it. It’s their spill, their oil,” he said. “They will keep cleaning until it’s cleaned up to our satisfaction.”

“I am extremely pleased with the way things are going,” Gregory said.