Crews Doubled as Oil on Beaches Increases : Environment: Winds could push most of remaining slick on shore today. Workers grow frustrated, tired and angry.

Hundreds of new cleanup workers swarmed across Orange County beaches Tuesday, doubling the number of people desperately trying to swab up layers of fresh oil from a tanker accident that has blackened miles of populated shoreline. Officials said they expect strong winds to drive most of the remaining oil ashore today.

A 30-foot-wide swath of gooey sludge stretched uninterrupted for four miles north of the Huntington Beach Municipal Pier as rising tides and moderate swells deposited the remnants of the 394,000 gallons of crude oil that leaked from the tanker American Trader on some of California’s best-known surfing and sunbathing spots.

Late Tuesday the Coast Guard identified two distinct slicks, the one washing ashore at Huntington Beach and the second bearing down on Newport Harbor, putting communities to the south of Newport Beach on higher alert. For the first time, patches of oil sullied stretches of beach along the Balboa Peninsula and tar balls were reportedly washing up as far south as Corona del Mar.

To the north in Los Angeles County, Seal Beach as well as Long Beach were no longer threatened.

Scores of birds washed up with the black tide. By mid-afternoon, the count had reached 111 dead birds washed ashore since the Feb. 7 spill; another 306 were oil-soaked but alive.

In Long Beach, crew members of the 800-foot American Trader recounted events surrounding the accident after the vessel berthed and began discharging the remaining 19 million gallons of oil it carried. The crew had been sequestered on the U.S.-registered tanker offshore for six days while officials investigated how one of the ship’s 12-ton anchors punctured the hull, triggering the spill.

“We did everything right--the same way we always do,” said deckhand Eric Bush, 19, of Seattle, one of three crew members who were dropping the ship’s two anchors when the accident occurred.

Bush recalled that, while letting down the ship’s starboard anchor, he felt “two sharp jolts” a few minutes apart. He thought the ship might have struck an undersea mud bank--until he looked over the side and saw thick, black oil spewing from the ship’s side.

“The water was just boiling with crude,” Bush told reporters.

Three ship’s officers, including Capt. Robert La Ware, have been cleared of alcohol or drug use at the time of the incident.

As a precaution, authorities temporarily banned all large tankers from using the Golden West offshore mooring, where the American Trader was to unload its crude last week. Only smaller vessels with less than a 20-foot draft or tank barges will be allowed to park there and unload oil shipments for mainland refineries, Coast Guard Capt. James C. Card said.

Investigators also ordered owners of the mooring, about two miles southwest of Huntington Beach, to conduct an underwater survey to check for any obstructions or problems on the sea floor.

“An accident has occurred at the mooring,” explained Coast Guard Lt. (j.g.) Robert Peng. “We want to close down the area--like the police securing a crime scene--until studies and recommendations are completed.”

Documents obtained Tuesday indicate that the American Trader was operating with little room for error at the mooring. A manual for tankers states that vessels with drafts of more than 43 feet--that is, how far down the hull goes into the water--cannot use the offshore facility.

Coast Guard investigators said Tuesday the draft of the American Trader was 43 feet shortly before the tanker apparently bounced on its port anchor, which was on the bottom in roughly 50 feet of water. Fully loaded, the ship’s draft is 43.7 feet.

Although the American Trader appears to be within the safety limit, Coast Guard officials said the mooring’s 51-foot depth and the draft of the ship have raised serious questions about whether the fully loaded tanker or any other large vessel can safely use the offshore terminal.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles federal court, former Congressman Chet Holifield, now a Newport Beach resident, filed one of the first lawsuits related to the spill.

The class-action suit filed by Holifield, a Democratic member of the House for 32 years before retiring in 1974, seeks compensation for damage and economic losses caused by the spill and the alleged failure to properly clean up the oil.

Among the defendants are the ship’s owner, American Trading Transportation Co., and the company that chartered the vessel, British Petroleum.

Holifield, who represented the Montebello area, declined to comment on his role in the suit, other than to say he agreed to be the lead plaintiff as a “public service.” The 86-year-old Holifield lives on Balboa Island.

Meantime, reinforcements had pushed the number of paid cleanup workers to more than 1,100 by dusk on Tuesday. But for many, the monotony of sopping up the oil by hand had taken a toll.

“It’s hopeless, just hopeless,” said George Martinez, his yellow slicker buttoned tight against the chill sea breeze as he raked the sand near the Huntington Beach cliffs. “The stuff just keeps coming. You clean a patch and an hour later it’s back--thicker and smellier.”

“It’s labor, labor, labor,” said Mark Smith, a Compton resident hired to swab the sand with cloth squares. “I’ve never worked this hard. I’m just hoping it doesn’t kill me.”

Another worker near the Huntington Beach pier complained that days of tedious work do not seem to have made any noticeable dent. ‘It’s (the oil) tearing up our uniforms it’s so heavy,” he said.

Despite such frustration, officials said 80% of the oil had either been recovered or had dissipated by late Tuesday.

To the relief of wildlife officials and volunteers, the spill continued to skirt three delicate wetlands areas.

After inspecting coastal estuaries, officials said that protective barriers were holding the oil at bay.

“I suspect the wetlands may be less threatened” than they were Monday, state Fish and Game Department Patrol Capt. Bill Powell said.

Cleanup efforts were strung out along 24 miles of coastline, but remained concentrated in the Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica areas, where oil damage was the worst.

Workers were deployed in multiple shifts as cleanup extended into the night in some places. Large spotlights illuminated sweeps of sand near Bolsa Chica State Beach, casting an eerie glow over the scene.

Some workers stripped out of the heavy yellow suits altogether, working in jeans and T-shirts. Concerned that workers may be exposing themselves to hazards, federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration officials visited the shoreline Tuesday morning, interviewing cleanup crews and reviewing their work.

“We’re finding that in a lot of the cases they’re not getting that much” training, said Tino R. Serrano, an assistant regional director for the U.S. Department of Labor.

For local residents, the continuing mess depressed emotions and business.

‘It’s awful,” said Robert August, who starred in the surfing movie “Endless Summer” and now owns a surf shop in Huntington Beach. “It’s pretty lousy for business. All that’s there now are reporters and politicians.”

The weather deteriorated Tuesday as winds kicked up in the afternoon, and the blustery conditions are expected to continue through Thursday.

“It’s going to get progressively worse before it gets better,” said Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times. “It’s not going to help matters at all.”

Winds, which had been limited to about 5 m.p.h. early Tuesday, increased to about 15 m.p.h. by day’s end. Today they are expected to increase further, with occasional gusts of more than 35 m.p.h. Swells of up to five feet also are expected to hamper skimming efforts.

At an afternoon press conference, Coast Guard officials said that if weather conditions continue, nearly all of the oil from the slick could be on the beach by today.

Officials as far south as Laguna Beach were closely monitoring the 16-mile-long slick, hoping the oil would not reach the area’s numerous coves and tide pools where cleanup would be nearly impossible.

Preparing for that possibility, Laguna Beach officials have put bundles of absorbent cloth and other materials at several key locations on the coast north of the town’s main beach to react quickly should the slick come ashore.

“We are preparing as if it is coming ashore,” said Laguna Beach City Councilman Robert F. Gentry, a longtime foe of offshore oil drilling. “The best thing that could happen is if it all washed up on those broad, flat beaches north of us. The worst thing is for that oil to reach our rocky coves. If it does, we’ll never get it clean.”

Times staff writer Dan Weikel contributed to this story.