Cleanup ’50 Times Slower’ Than Expected, Miller Says

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) criticized the Huntington Beach oil spill clean-up Thursday as “50 times slower” than expected, based on an earlier Coast Guard estimate, but officials supervising the operation disputed the congressman’s characterization.

“Mother Nature was doing a good job of keeping the spill off the beach, not the Coast Guard,” said Miller, chairman of the water, power and offshore energy resources subcommittee of the House Interior Committee.

Miller based his criticism on the Coast Guard’s earlier response to a questionnaire prepared by his subcommittee in the wake of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March, 1989.

Asked how many barrels of oil could be recovered within 72 hours of a Valdez-size spill off the coast of California, the Coast Guard provided an estimate of 6.8 million gallons.

In contrast, only about 95,000 gallons of oil had been recovered within 72 hours of the Feb. 7 Huntington Beach spill, according to Coast Guard Lt. Jim Milbury. That is less than 2% of the estimate cited in the Coast Guard’s response to Miller’s panel.

That estimate, however, was based on “ideal weather and sea conditions and optimum skimming efficiencies,” the Coast Guard had noted.

In addition, the Exxon Valdez dumped about 11 million gallons of oil when it ran aground. The American Trader spilled 394,000 gallons, or less than 4% of the amount involved in the Valdez disaster.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. William Kime said the hypothetical question posed by Miller’s panel was based on a set of ideal circumstances. In last week’s spill, he said, the Coast Guard had to deal with a far more difficult situation.

“The actual spill was about 3% of the size about which he (Miller) asked the hypothetical question,” Kime said. “If you have oil that’s six inches thick, you’re going to pick up a lot more oil, more quickly, than if it’s about a half-inch thick.”

The weather conditions off Huntington Beach were by no means “ideal,” Kime said. Rather, he said, the Coast Guard skimmers were hampered by two-foot-high waves and winds of 10 to 15 knots.

In addition, the question from Miller’s subcommittee noted “optimum skimming efficiency,” which would mean that the Coast Guard’s 10 to 20 operating skimmers would have been able to take in all oil and no water. “That is not possible,” Kime said.