HUNTINGTON BEACH : Claim Response Too Slow, Businesses Say

A group of merchants has charged that claims filed over last month’s 394,000-gallon oil spill have not been processed fast enough.

More than 25 small-business owners expressed frustration--and anger--Thursday night during a meeting with the insurance carrier for the owners of the tanker American Trader, which ruptured its forward hull on its own anchor, spilling Alaskan crude into the ocean about 1.3 miles southwest of Huntington Beach.

Complaints were aimed at Crawford & Co., the Atlanta-based carrier processing claims for American Trader Transportation Co., which owns the 811-foot tanker.

“I’m getting very frustrated. I keep hearing what a great job (British Petroleum) is doing cleaning the beach up, and I wonder who they’re talking to,” said Tom Lewis, who operates a parking concession next to the city’s pier. But the oil company, which owned the spilled crude, used the lot as a staging area for cleanup operations, and Lewis said heavy equipment and disposal bins created about a dozen potholes that he says must be fixed before the lot can reopen. Lewis said he filed a claim two weeks ago but has yet to hear from the insurance carrier.

He and other merchants gathered at a Huntington Beach restaurant to register their complaints directly with the insurance carrier. The tanker owner has a $400-million policy covering oil cleanup costs--now about $15 million--and any claims filed as a resort of spill damage or lost business. John Nolan, a claims manager with Crawford & Co., promised that the company would be more responsive to the merchants but suggested that many business owners have yet to file proper claims.

“You have to remember, we’re a business too, so we have to go through certain procedures to make sure you are paid for losses that can be reasonably attributed to the oil spill,” Nolan said.

Natalie Kotsch, spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach Downtown Merchants’ Guild, urged the carrier to make $250,000 available for immediate repairs and compensation to business owners. But Nolan said he was unsure whether immediate payments could be made.

One restaurant owner, who said his business had actually improved since the spill, criticized others for attempting to take advantage of the disaster.

“I’m embarrassed,” he said. “You people are going up before the whole world and saying you were hurt by this, but you’re trying to use this disaster to get some money off it.”