LOCAL : Newport Beach Officials Open More Coastline After Oil Cleanup

As oil spill-damaged areas continued to diminish, Newport Beach city officials today decided to extend beach openings southward from the Newport Harbor jetty through the city limit in Corona Del Mar.

Officials may open the beach through the Newport Pier commercial area as early as Wednesday, depending on a walk-through inspection scheduled today, Newport Beach Fire Department Capt. Ray Pendleton said.

Public beaches are now accessible between Newport’s 15th Street and Cameo Shores Road. Officials on Monday opened a stretch of sand between the west harbor jetty and 15th Street, the first to open since the spill closed 14 miles of shoreline between Seal Beach and Laguna Beach.

The entire Huntington Beach coastline remains closed.

Meanwhile, a team of experts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today began new surveys of the ocean floor around the offshore mooring where an oil tanker spilled 394,000 gallons of crude on Feb. 7, Coast Guard officials said. Hydrographic surveyors are checking for errors in depth charts that detail vessel-approach lanes to an oil pipeline near the mooring operated by Golden West Refining Co., said Coast Guard Petty Officer Tim Rowe. Authorities have said inaccurate chart readings could explain why the tanker American Trader was impaled on its own anchor.