Tankers Face Stricter Rules at O.C. Mooring : Oil spill: Under new Coast Guard regulations, the American Trader would not have been allowed to dock off Huntington Beach in February.

A Coast Guard investigation of a tanker accident that dumped 394,000 gallons of oil off the Orange County coast has led to a series of unprecedented restrictions on a Huntington Beach mooring that may ultimately limit tanker traffic at similar offshore depots in California.

Under the new rules, there must be at least six feet of clearance between the vessel and the sea floor or any known obstruction, such as an anchor. Depth readings will be determined monthly, and the moorings will be sounded before each tanker arrival, said Chris Desmond, commander of the 11th District Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in Long Beach.

The new regulations were announced at the conclusion of the Coast Guard’s two-month investigation into the Feb. 7 spill. The Coast Guard declined to release any findings about the exact cause of the accident, pending review by its headquarters in Washington. However, it imposed restrictions that reflect concerns about the accuracy of the depth readings used by the American Trader crew.

The new regulations apply only to the Huntington Beach marine terminal, where the 811-foot tanker American Trader gashed itself on its own anchor at low tide in waters that had not been charted since 1975.

Soundings at the time showed depths at the mooring of 50 to 56 feet, but the Coast Guard report said new soundings taken after the accident found the water depth at its shallowest to be 47 feet. Given the Coast Guard’s new guidelines for tanker deliveries at the facility, about 1.3 miles southwest of Huntington Beach, the American Trader would not have been allowed into the terminal the day of the accident.

The disabled tanker had a draft of 43 feet at the time of the accident, and Desmond said only vessels with a draft of 32 feet or less would have been permitted into the terminal that day because of the “low tide, four-foot groundswell and shallowness of the mooring.” The draft is a measure of the portion of the ship below the water’s surface.

The mooring pilot on the American Trader has told the State Lands Commission that he believed he had from eight to 13 feet of water under the ship’s keel, an acceptable safety margin, as he dropped the anchors and prepared to coax the ship into the 700-foot-wide, U-shaped cluster of seven buoys. But the pilot was guiding the tanker with outdated depth maps and the vessel actually had less than five feet of clearance when it struck one of its anchors.

Desmond contends that won’t happen again.

“We believe these are prudent restrictions to get oil into that (mooring) and still avert another accident,” said Desmond, who added that it is “very likely that similar guidelines” could eventually be extended to some of the other 20 offshore terminals in California.

The Coast Guard and State Lands Commission, which supervises leases of state property, including offshore moorings in waters up to three miles from the coast, are conducting a joint study of all marine terminals. Though the study was announced more than a month ago, it is not yet under way, Desmond said.

The operator of the Huntington Beach mooring, Golden West Refining Co. in Santa Fe Springs, was notified of the new restrictions last week. Roger Kemple, an executive with the firm, said his company “probably won’t challenge” the restrictions, but added, “it will very difficult on us and it’s going to be very costly” to make up the difference between the smaller tanker deliveries and the supplies that will have to be trucked to its refinery.

The executive director of the State Lands Commission, Charles Warren, called the restrictions “significant and a step in the right direction” in preventing spills off the Orange County coast.

But Huntington Beach Mayor Thomas J. Mays, who has lobbied for the permanent closure of the marine terminal, said the Coast Guard action does not go far enough.

“It’s a start, but any type of offshore mooring is a danger to this coast,” he said. “No matter what you do, you can’t prevent another spill.”

Huntington Beach Fire Chief Raymond C. Picard agreed, saying that the new mooring measures do not “speak to the broader question of what risks still prevail.” Among the city’s concerns, Picard said, is the close proximity of the offshore terminal to the city’s popular beaches, the unpredictable nature of weather and potential “miscues and errors” by those manning tankers.

Golden West Refining has a lease on the mooring through the year 2005, and Warren of the State Lands Commission said any move to terminate that agreement and close the terminal will be considered as part of the agency’s joint study with the Coast Guard.

The American Trader spill forced the closure for weeks of three harbors and nearly 20 miles of Orange County shoreline. Up to 720 birds died. Seaside businesses, particularly charter boat operators, say they lost thousands of dollars and cleanup of the spill has cost more than $21 million.

NEXT STEP

The results of the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation into the Feb. 7 oil spill off the Orange County coast have been sent to Coast Guard headquarters in Washington for review. The results may be released publicly within two months. The investigation centered on the cause of the accident involving the oil tanker American Trader, which is owned by American Trading Transportation Co. of New York. The tanker was leased by British Petroleum Oil Shipping Co. USA to carry crude from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Southern California. Several lawsuits against BP, including one by fishermen, are pending.

OFFSHORE MOORING RESTRICTIONS

The Coast Guard has imposed the following restrictions for the mooring off Huntington Beach where the tanker American Trader spilled 394,000 gallons of oil on Feb. 7.

There must be at least six feet of clearance between the vessel entering the mooring and the sea floor or any known obstruction.

Depth readings will be taken monthly by the operator of the mooring. Those findings will be given each vessel bound for the mooring.

The mooring will be sounded by a separate support vessel before each tanker arrival.

The Coast Guard must be notified 24 hours in advance of each vessel’s arrival. Also, a checklist must be completed to verify compliance with the rules.

A tug of 3,000 horsepower must accompany all tankers or oil barges into the mooring.

Every effort must be made to avoid passing over anchors during mooring. Coast Guard officials said that one of the American Trader’s 6-foot-wide, 12-foot-long anchors punctured two holes in a forward oil-bearing hold as a swell apparently rocked the vessel.

An annual study of the contour and topography of the mooring must be conducted.

Sea conditions must be studied every six months to develop a history of weather and tidal patterns.

Source: The 11th Coast Guard District in Long Beach.