Tanker Spill to Raise Storm of Investigations

By the time cleanup crews began dabbing at the American Trader’s spilled cargo with absorbent pads last week, a host of officials, politicians and citizens had turned some of their attention from the oil-stained beaches toward a thicket of investigations.

By week’s end, at least two lawsuits--one seeking $10 million for local gill-net fisherman, the other asking for unspecified damages on behalf of coastal residents and merchants--already were filed. And inquiries and investigations of all kinds had been launched.

No less than 40 state, federal and local entities are trying to ferret out what happened and who is financially liable for the spill that fouled 14 miles of beach, temporarily devastated the fishing industry, killed hundreds of marine birds and cost British Petroleum, which owned the oil and has coordinated the cleanup, an estimated $10 million so far.

U.S. Coast Guard investigators conducting the lead inquiry began looking into every aspect of the mishap, from the accuracy of navigation charts to broader questions about whether large tankers should use the berth where 394,000 gallons of oil spilled into the sea on Feb. 7.

Politicians geared up for hearings, which could begin this spring. The state attorney general’s office pulled together its investigative and legal team for a suit against the owners and operators of the vessel.

The State Lands Commission initiated reviews of coastal leases with mooring terminals, state Fish and Game was assessing wildlife damage, the Coastal Commission was reviewing lessons from previous spills, and the city of Huntington Beach began scrutinizing its contract with the refinery that owns the offshore mooring.

At the federal level, the Departments of Justice, Labor, Interior and Transportation--along with their various sub-agencies, including the FBI--also were in gear before the ship had even straggled back to Long Beach for repairs.

Even New York-based American Trading Transportation Co., which owns the vessel, was running an in-house investigation, based on the presumption that the ship encountered waters more shallow than navigation charts indicated.

“I don’t have the faintest idea what all these other groups are hoping to find,” Sanford Schmidt, American Trading’s president, said. “I really don’t know how long all of this will take or where it will lead. I really don’t.”

Investigations Spread

Each investigative body will probe slightly different aspects of the accident, but all can be expected to focus on a few common points--the depth of the water near the mooring where the accident occurred, the conduct of the captain and crew and the adequacy of the cleanup efforts.

The full results of the probes are months, even years off, and could lead to civil penalties and stricter controls on the oil industry. Criminal charges are possible but not likely, officials say.

Eleven days after the spill, key parts of the overall effort still rest with the Coast Guard, the lead agency in addressing the causes of the spill. Conducting the two-pronged investigation are Cmdr. Paul Larson, Lt. (j.g.) Neal Reardon and Lt. (j.g.) William Drelling.

“We are in the fact-finding stage, the evidence-gathering stage,” said Cmdr. Scott Porter, assistant director of marine safety in California. “Every day they are coming across new leads that must be checked out. We are putting in a lot of hours.”

Coast Guard officials consider the American Trader inquiry an informal investigation because there was no loss of human life. The events leading to the accident are fairly clear, and investigators do not expect it to be especially difficult to unravel. Although they remain an option, formal panels of officials to take testimony about the accident are not necessary at this point, Porter said.

So far, the investigation has focused on the crew’s conduct, the depth of the water around the mooring, the possibility of inaccurate navigational charts, and the position of the ship at the time of the accident, Porter said. Investigators are also reviewing broader questions about whether large tankers should use the offshore terminal owned by Golden West Refining Co. of Santa Fe Springs.

The mooring master and American Trader’s senior officers were all tested for drugs and alcohol in the hours immediately following the accident. Those tests came back negative, so impairment is not expected to figure in the further inquiries.

How Deep Is Mooring?

Those findings are among the few hard facts that have been released so far by the Coast Guard. Nevertheless, some of the points underlying the inquiry are already known: The 21-year-old American Trader is 811 feet long, 125 feet wide and can carry 565,000 barrels of oil. Its draft is 43.7 feet fully loaded, and shipping company officials have said it was full on Feb. 7, when it made its fateful approach toward the mooring off Huntington Beach.

Ships with drafts more than 43 feet or lengths greater than 1,000 feet are not allowed into the berth, which has charted depths of around 51 feet.

The actual depth of the water is much at issue, however. Preliminary indications show that the tanker might have been operating in water five feet shallower than that indicated on depth charts when it struck its port anchor, puncturing the hull twice.

Porter said the Coast Guard has received no official complaints from mariners about the waters around the Huntington Beach mooring, hence the depths noted on navigation charts have remained unchanged since at least 1975.

Under way or in the planning stages are no less than three surveys to find out the actual depth around the mooring. Golden West, under orders from the Coast Guard, began to take soundings last week.

American Trading Transportation Co. and British Petroleum also are surveying the bottom, and the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wants to do an independent depth survey for the government.

“Just how many surveys we need is a good question,” Porter said. “I would hope one would suffice, but everyone has their own legal interest in this.”

With the depth at one offshore mooring in question, the Coast Guard has ordered an investigation at 15 other tanker moorings off the California coast to determine whether they may conceal hidden safety problems. No findings have been made yet.

“We want to make sure this is not a problem that could result in a disaster anywhere else,” Porter said. “The fact that this one (off Huntington Beach) has been used safely for years and years and now there’s a problem--that certainly raises a question about the others.”

When their investigation is finished, Larson, Reardon and Drelling will submit their findings and recommendations to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington for approval. If the commandant’s office concludes that new regulations are warranted to prevent similar mishaps, it can appeal to Congress for legislation.

If crew members are ultimately suspected of negligence or gross incompetence, they could face charges brought by the Coast Guard in federal administrative law courts. The civil proceeding, which is akin to a criminal trial, can result in reprimands, suspensions or revocations of marine credentials for the offending mariner.

While that would end the Coast Guard’s involvement with the case, it will barely mark the beginning of the broader investigation. Chief among the parties awaiting the Coast Guard’s findings--and already initiating inquiries of their own--are two groups of plaintiffs who have filed suit against British Petroleum and American Trading Transportation Co.

“We’re going to try to depose the captain, the people on watch, the people dropping the anchors, everybody,” said Howard Sacks, an admiralty lawyer representing a group of gill-net fisherman. “We’re going to want the fedometer readings (which indicate the depth of the water under a ship), the bell book (which indicates orders to the ship’s engine room) and the ship’s logs.”

On Friday, Sacks notified the court that he hopes to depose the American Trader’s captain, Robert La Ware, on Thursday. Sacks has also requested access to many of the ship’s records.

Who Pays, How Much

As the lawsuits wind their way through the judicial system, a bevy of state agencies is launching investigations that will head in many directions at once.

Air and water quality agencies say they will attempt to evaluate damage to the air, shoreline and ocean. Local governments are expected to try to discern the effects on tourism and land values. The U.S. Department of Transportation could exercise jurisdiction to investigate the effects of the spill on a transportation waterway.

At the state level, the Lands Commission has already launched a review of the leases for 16 offshore oil terminals--including the mooring where the American Trader spilled its load. A broader investigation of the facilities is expected to follow.

Charles Warren, executive director of the commission, said the agency “found nothing of concern” after meeting with Golden West executives and a cursory review of the company’s lease and operating procedures.

“We are going to look at everything--depth, oil spill plans, operating procedures, equipment and maybe some stuff we can’t even think of right now,” said Jim Trout, assistant executive director of the agency.

The State Lands Commission is one of a half-dozen or so state agencies whose legal case against British Petroleum and American Trading Transportation will be borne by the state attorney general’s office. The state agencies are lumped together as part of the Interagency Oil Spill Committee, which is convened in response to spills and which consists of agency representatives on loan to the coordinating group.

Its findings, which will be months in the making, then go to the attorney general, who will be responsible for charting the central legal battle over the American Trader spill. Results of that battle will determine who pays--and how much they pay--for the environmental damage to Orange County and its coastal waters.

The attorney general’s suit will likely parallel a 1988 case in which Shell Oil spilled 434,000 gallons of oil into water near Martinez in Northern California. The settlement in that case resulted in a $19.5-million payment by Shell to the state.

“Frankly, because our main interest is in restoring or replacing the damage to the environment, we’re probably more interested in pursuing civil remedies” than criminal ones, said John Saurenman, a deputy attorney general in the Los Angeles office.

Indeed, officials said that figuring out what to seek in terms of civil penalties poses perhaps the most complicated part of the inquiry. Federal prosecution under the Clean Water Act is also possible.

“The biggest part of the investigation right now is putting together a damage assessment,” Saurenman said. “We need to determine how much all of this stuff is worth and who is liable for it, because we’re going to be asking them for money.”

There are few guides in assessing the losses. But officials will rely on experts in an an obscure but increasingly significant field known as “economic valuation of wildlife” or “environmental valuation.”

“There aren’t many easy answers,” said Dave Dick, a public affairs officer for the Fish and Game Department. “How much is a deer or a gull or a wild animal worth? I don’t think it’s an exact science.”

All the same questions that bedevil legal and environmental experts will emerge at the center of a widening political inquiry into the accident as well, officials predicted. In Washington and in Sacramento, elected representatives have landed on the American Trader accident as vindication for an array of ideas.

Some see it as a death-knell for offshore oil drilling; others see it as strengthening the case for those wells so fewer tankers will be needed. Proponents of legislation that would require tankers to be double-hulled argue that an investigation should focus in on whether the Feb. 7 spill would have happened had the American Trader not been a single-hulled vessel.

The state Assembly’s Select Committee on Oil Spill Prevention and Response Preparedness, which has subpoena power, is already planning to hold a hearing in Huntington Beach to evaluate the causes of the spill and the effectiveness of the cleanup.

Both subjects raise the tempers of committee leaders.

“What were these guys doing with a full tanker steaming into shallow water?” asked Assemblyman Gerald N. Felando (R-San Pedro), vice chairman of the committee. “You can bet we’re going to want some answers to that question.”

ANIMAL VALUES: How much is a pelican worth? The state must set a value. A41