LOCAL : Cleanup Efforts Nearly Complete on Oil Spill That Hit Bolsa Chica

Coast Guard officials were directing final mop-up efforts this morning on an estimated 168 gallons of oil that washed onto more than a mile of Bolsa Chica State Beach on Tuesday afternoon.

The oil, from an as-yet undetermined source, was first spotted on the beach about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on the south end of the three-mile state beach. The beach was closed during the night as a 20-person crew removed oil-stained sand.

The north half of the beach was reopened this morning, and the remainder was expected to be reopened by early afternoon after crews finish mopping up the mysterious glob. The only known damage to wildlife was an oil-covered bird, which was being treated this morning.

Coast Guard officials took samples of the oil from the beach to determine its origin. The samples are being sent to a Coast Guard lab in Connecticut and test results are expected back within two weeks.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Tim Rowe said investigators believe the oil leaked from one of two drilling platforms in the vicinity. One platform, Eva, is operated by Unocal Corp., while the other, Emmy, is run by Shell Oil Co. Unocal assumed responsibility for the cleanup, but not the spill, and hired contractor Chempro of Long Beach to remove the oil.

Barry Lane, a Unocal spokesman in Los Angeles, said his company volunteered for the cleanup only because “all of the oil companies work together” when there is a spill like this. But Lane added that the oil could have come from anywhere; a passing ship, even from a hidden deposit on the ocean bottom.

The Unocal rig, he noted, is south of Bolsa Chica State Beach, and a downstream current would make it unlikely the oil originated from there.