Oil Spill Off Huntington Beach

Lady Luck was smiling on Southern California’s coast--if you can call it “luck” when we are hit by 400,000 gallons of oil from the American Trader. But will we be so lucky the next time?

Not unless the federal and state governments get off the dime and create an oil spill response project to handle the next spill which is as certain as death and taxes. It has been 20 years since the Union Oil Co. well blew out in Santa Barbara Channel, dumping 3.2 million gallons of oil into the sea and on the beaches. Today our feeble oil spill response “team” could not handle a 400,000 gallon mini-disaster. What would its response have been to an 11-million gallon disaster from an Exxon Valdez? Yet, huge tankers like the Valdez routinely ply our waters and stop at our harbors. The American Trader accident could have been far worse. A storm and heavy seas could have spilled 19 million gallons from the stricken freighter.

California is not prepared for a major oil spill disaster. Alaska was not prepared for the Exxon Valdez spill. And no other state in the nation is ready for another major oil spill.

The buzzword blame for these accidents is always the same: “human error.” As though we should accept human error as inevitable in a high-tech society. Through rigid controls airline accidents have been greatly reduced. But there are almost no equivalent controls on oil tanker operations as the Exxon Valdez and now the American Trader have proved.

The American Oceans Campaign, working with federal and state legislators and other environmental organizations, will insist on strong new regulations to insure a higher degree of safety in oil tanker operations and offshore oil drilling.

Legislation already has been advanced in Congress and the state. In addition, the Environmental Protection Act initiative is currently circulating in the state. It creates an office of oil spill response and a $500-million cleanup fund from fees imposed on oil imported into California. These measures should be enacted into law.

ROBERT H. SULNICK

Executive Director

American Oceans Campaign

Santa Monica