<i> During 1990, many Orange County residents wrote about their thoughts and feelings in articles for Orange County opinion pages. As we look back on the year, some of those thoughts are recalled.</i> : Robert F. Gentry on Offshore Oil Spills

Feb.7, 1990 , will be a day that Orange Countians will remember for some time to come. On that day, approximately 400,000 gallons of oil began spewing from the American Trader, an 800-foot tanker operated by British Petroleum. The disaster is the worst oil spill in the history of Orange County.

We are fortunate that mother nature looked favorably upon us, playing a very important role in the clean-up operation.

It is amazing that in 1990, with the kind of technology this country has utilized in many areas, we still have quite primitive ways of recovering oil from the water. Technology has not been developed to handle a spill even the size of this one, and that, to me, is deplorable.

We should not be offering the leasing of tracts off Orange County when we are unable to effectively clean up from a disaster that oil development and the oil industry may produce.

The main lesson learned in this disaster is that we need much stricter laws governing the transport of oil near our shores and we need to take a very hard look at the expansion of this industry in Orange County.

I believe the area between the Orange County coastline and Catalina Island should be designated a National Oceanic Park. That plan already has the support of half of the cities in the county and the Board of Supervisors.

The people must realize that the strong oil lobby has produced a situation where the checks and balances just are not there.