Cleanup Crews Hit the Beaches : Volunteers Concentrate on Newport

Cleanup workers zeroed in on Newport Beach and Huntington Beach shores early today, sopping up the oily foam that rolled in overnight from the ruptured tanker American Trader.

The professional crews had begun work on the beaches as soon as the oil hit at dusk Thursday.

At daylight today, volunteers began arriving in large numbers and were being directed to Newport Beach, where most of the oil had washed ashore. Nine skimming vessels were at work, and six more were expected later today.

About 55 birds were found fouled by oil as of this morning. Twenty had died, officials said.

Coast Guard officials said the crew of the tanker, which is operated by British Petroleum, “most likely” caused the leak by drawing an anchor across the ship’s bow.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Commander Alan Carver declined to label the crew as negligent, however. He said Coast Guard investigators will have to make that determination.

Meanwhile, another possible hole has been found in the hull of the tanker, raising fears that a 2-million-gallon compartment is spewing more crude oil into the water.

Divers have been unable to tell whether the other compartment is leaking, and its crude oil level is being closely watched, Carver said.

He said the punctures in the hold probably were caused when the ship’s crew pulled the port anchor across the ship’s bow in extremely shallow water.

A Coast Guard spokesman at the scene estimated that by this morning, less than 100 gallons of oil had reached Newport’s beaches, mostly of it in an area just north of Newport Pier. It took the form of a brownish foam.

By late morning, the shifting wind had pushed the slick away back toward Huntington Beach. It was about four miles off Newport Beach, less than a mile from Huntington State Beach, according to the Coast Guard.

Carver said that as of this morning, 10% of the oil had been recovered by oil-skimmer vessels, 17% had sunk to the bottom and about 12% had dissipated. Another 3% of the oil is expected to dissipate in the next three days.

Carver said it appears the American Trader was drawing 57 feet of water when it approached the mooring at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the water depth was “50-plus feet.” Tide charts show that an extreme minus 1.3-foot low tide at the nearby mouth of the Santa Ana River occurred at 4:06 p.m. that day.

According to Carver, the accident probably occurred when the crew dropped its 12-ton port anchor to prepare to back into the 700-yard-wide mooring. The anchor moved to the starboard side of the ship, its chain running under or around the bow, he said.

As the crew tried to pull the anchor into position, it was drawn across the hull, causing the punctures, Carter said.

Federal and state officials today ruled against the use of chemical dispersants. Coast Guard officials sought permission to use the controversial dispersants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, but state Department of Fish and Game denied the request, saying the health hazard and risk was too great to offset the clean up benefits.