O.C. Harbors, Some Beach Areas Reopen

With all but the last traces of Alaskan crude out of Orange County’s coastal waters, local governments took their first steps toward normalcy Monday, opening more than two miles of beach and the channels into Newport Harbor, Huntington Harbour and Anaheim Bay.

Shortly after 2 p.m., a four-deck cabin cruiser, the first boat in nearly two weeks to set sail from Newport, passed through the harbor entrance and out to sea. Anaheim Bay was opened 30 minutes later and Huntington Harbour shortly after that. Oil booms were left near harbor entrances, so that they could be redeployed quickly if needed.

Word spread slowly about the county’s first beach reopening--from the northwest breakwater of Newport Harbor to 15th Street in Newport Beach--but by late afternoon more than 100 people had gathered near the shore in Newport to walk the sands and survey the progress of the cleanup.

A few ventured into the water, but with a faint smell of petroleum still in the air, most remained cautious.

“I’m relieved at this point to see that it’s not worse,” said Debi Layne, 36, of Newport Beach. Still, she added: “I wouldn’t go in it. I don’t think I’ll let him (her son, 9-year-old Chaz) go in it for six months.”

Some beaches, such as those in Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica, will remain closed for at least a few more days. But others may open as early as today, and officials boasted that the cleanup efforts from the Feb. 7 oil spill were now well in hand.

“It looks pretty good from Huntington down to Newport,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Tim Rowe. “The beaches look clean, and things are starting to reopen.”

Small tar balls continued to dot the shore in Laguna Beach, several miles to the south. The slick never hit there with much force, however, and cleanup crews have not been needed.

Beaches and harbors along a 15-mile stretch of Orange County coastline have been closed for nearly two weeks, since the hull of the American Trader was punctured by its own anchor while the tanker was approaching an offshore oil-unloading station off Huntington Beach. The result was that 394,000 gallons of oil were dumped into the ocean, forcing officials to launch a cleanup effort that employed more than 1,300 workers at its height.

By Monday, the cleanup crews were down to 200 workers, and state, local and federal officials monitoring the slick all agreed that the crisis had passed.

Meanwhile, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began their effort to measure the ocean depth at the site of the spill so that Coast Guard investigators can determine the accuracy of navigational charts for the area. Those charts have not been updated since 1975, and their accuracy is a central point in the Coast Guard’s investigation of the oil spill.

British Petroleum, which owned the spilled oil, and American Transportation Trading Co., which owns the vessel, have completed their own survey of the ocean depth in the area. A British Petroleum spokesman said Monday, however, that results are still being analyzed and probably will not be released until after the Coast Guard makes its findings public.

Charts for the area indicate a minimum depth of 51 feet at low tide. The American Trader, which was fully loaded at the time of the spill, had a draft of 43 feet when it approached the mooring, according to officials from American Trading.

“I would like to find out how deep the water is,” Coast Guard Capt. James C. Card, the federal on-scene coordinator for the cleanup, said during a press briefing at the Coast Guard Marine Safety Office in Long Beach. “All I have on the depth is what is on the chart.”

Card said that if the oceanic survey finds significant inaccuracies in the chart, he will consider ordering a large-scale survey of the coastline. The survey is expected to take a week, with the depth findings to be forwarded to the Coast Guard shortly thereafter, according to Lt. Cmdr. Samuel P. DeBow Jr. of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The American Trader, which left Long Beach Harbor on Sunday, steamed north for San Francisco, where it will be dry-docked and its hull repaired. The 811-foot tanker, now empty, was scheduled to arrive at the shipyard Wednesday or Thursday.

After several days of strong winds and rain, Monday’s cleanup received a boost from the weather when sunny skies returned to the area. But crews were cut back over the weekend, and some local officials and environmentalists publicly fretted that significant tasks remain unfinished.

“We have concerns, and we’ve made them known to British Petroleum and to the Coast Guard,” said Huntington Beach Fire Chief Ray Picard, the city’s operations commander. “It’s important that they not scale back too much or too quickly.”

Dead and injured birds continued to wash ashore throughout the day Monday, and Victor Leipzig, president of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Conservancy, said more are expected as the effects of eating oil-damaged grass and fish take their toll of waterfowl. By Monday afternoon, 433 oil-soaked birds had been taken to area treatment centers. Another 340 birds had died.

Although Leipzig said the primary threat to wildlife was over now that the oil has washed ashore, spots of oil concentration remain in pockets beneath the sand.

In some Huntington Beach areas, waves and wind covered some ribbons of the crude with sand before cleanup crews arrived on the scene. As a result, layers of oil, sometimes up to an inch thick, sit more than a foot below the surface.

“My understanding is that it may be necessary to remove an entire layer of sand to get the remaining oil,” Leipzig said. “A couple of hundred California Conservation Corps workers are not going to be able to take care of all that.”

On the beach, CCC workers, who by Monday formed the bulwark of the remaining cleanup crews, showed signs of wear.

“Everyone out there isn’t quite working as well as they have been because of fatigue,” said Jeff Williams, one of 114 CCC workers on the beach Monday. Workers have been housed at the Orange County Fairgrounds, sleeping on cots after working 12-hour shifts.

The combination of hard work and little rest, Williams and others said, has drained some workers.

“You’ve got to realize that these people are working 12 hours a day,” said Daniel Overmyer, a compliance officer with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. “It puts a tremendous physical demand on them. I think we’re looking at fatigue and stress.”

Deployment of the cleanup crews also caused some concern Monday morning. Only one small crew combed the sands of Newport Beach even though the beach still showed some signs of oil staining. City officials asked British Petroleum for more assistance.

“Somebody dropped the ball,” said Police Lt. Tim Newman, a spokesman for the city. “There’s nobody down on the beach today and we still have oiled sand in some areas.”

At British Petroleum, public affairs officer Jim Marino defended the size and use of the crews, saying that state and federal officials agreed with the company’s assessment that the cleanup has passed the critical stage.

“All the indications are that there are no significant amounts of oil left out there,” Marino said. “We are convinced that we’re beyond the curve on this.”

More workers are expected to be added today, and several hundred will continue to work the beach through the end of the week. The company now describes its mission as “essentially detail work,” Marino added.

Times staff writers Jim Carlton and Wendy Paulson contributed to this report, along with Shannon Sands and Michelle Nicolosi.

OCEAN BOTTOM SURVEY The National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Monday was preparing to begin a weeklong survey to measure the depth of the ocean bottom where the tanker American Trader ruptured Feb. 7. The survey will be performed by a 21-foot vessel equipped with two types of sonar-measuring devices. 1. Side-scan scanner: A cylindrical device about four feet long, this scanner is towed behind the vessel and takes sonar measurements diagonally across the ocean bottom. By taking the measurements diagonally, the scanner is able to detect the obstructions that the echo sounder cannot. 2. Echo sounder: This device shoots beams of sound to the ocean bottom and measures how long it takes for the beams to return to the vessel after bouncing off the bottom. This technique measures vertical depth only and is not able to detect any obstructions such as sand bars.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration