Last Chapter of Oil Spill Being Written at Bargaining Table : Environment: A year ago, 400,000 gallons blackened the ocean off Huntington Beach. An amicable agreement, not a messy trial, may determine compensation.

One year after horrified emergency workers huddled on the beach as an oil slick loomed offshore, the epilogue of the saga remains unwritten.

The final chapter of Southern California’s worst oil spill in 20 years will be about comeuppance, a civilized revenge wrapped up neatly in a 29-page lawsuit filed on behalf of the people of the State of California.

This week, as the first anniversary of the oil spill approaches, lawyers are about to begin haggling over the last unfinished business: How should the companies involved compensate the public for harming wildlife and fouling beaches? What is the dollar value of the losses, from the hundreds of oiled birds that died to the temporary tarnishing of a famous surf town’s image?

An amicable settlement, not a messy trial, is expected by all sides.

But amid the final wrangling, which is expected to take a year or more, the people whose outlook changed forever when 400,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from the ruptured American Trader tanker offer one haunting message: Don’t forget Feb. 7, 1990.

There are lessons to be remembered and precautions to take, and those intimately acquainted with the weeks of hard work and emotional upheaval that followed the spill urge Southern Californians to remember that such a crisis could happen again.

Last year, everybody agrees, Orange County was lucky.

The Exxon Valdez dumped 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound and at last count more than 460 million gallons of oil had spilled into the Persian Gulf during the war there.

So, by comparison, the local spill--which occurred when the American Trader was ruptured by its own anchor as it approached Huntington Beach’s tanker terminal--was fairly small.

And now, the 15 miles of once-soiled beaches are clean again and tourism is up. It remains unclear whether the marine birds, fish and kelp off Huntington Beach have suffered some insidious injury, but the region’s most sensitive resources, its wetlands, escaped devastation.

Marine biologists--some representing state agencies and some working for BP America Inc., which owned the oil--are still gathering samples and studying the effect on wildlife.

BP America officials say their consultants have detected no lasting environmental damage. But state officials say they have evidence to the contrary.

Populations and reproduction rates of many marine creatures off the coast have not returned to normal, and probably won’t for years, said John Grant, an associate marine biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game who coordinated marine damage studies after the Huntington Beach spill. He refused to release details of the state’s findings because it is evidence in the pending lawsuit. But he said there are fewer marine birds and fish in the area.

“This spill is not over,” Grant said. “The ecosystem has not fully recovered and it won’t for some time.”

One of the main lessons state officials learned was that some injury to wildlife and resources cannot be avoided after a large spill, Grant said. Prevention is the only way to protect the animals because the plastic, snakelike booms and skimmer vessels used to contain and clean up slicks are inadequate, he said.

“Oil spills are not controllable in a biological sense. Most of the spill will get away from you and impact resources,” Grant said. “We had a couple little oil spills a few weeks ago, in Long Beach and off Bolsa Chica, and the constant impact adds up.

“It’s sort of like being nibbled to death by moths,” he added. “It’s very gentle and very silent, but you end up dead anyway. That’s what’s happening to the Southern California marine ecosystem.”

At BP America Inc., the Cleveland-based oil company that coordinated the five-week cleanup that cost about $35 million, corporate officials said they haven’t forgotten the lessons of the Huntington Beach spill. In fact, they are teaching them.

Company officials have met with representatives from the nation’s main oil companies and small independent firms to share what they learned about rapidly mobilizing and training large cleanup teams, using equipment, and communicating with officials and the public. Many of the companies are developing or refining crisis management teams as a result of the spill.

“It was an extremely unfortunate event, but it has spawned an intense level of activity, and all of that has to benefit society in time,” said Chuck Webster, BP America’s crisis manager. “The learning process continues and there is a great deal of pressure and commitment within all facets to learn more and be ready to apply more. But at the same time, the public’s concerns about preventing a recurrence are very much still on our minds, too.”

The aftereffects of the spill also reached the state Legislature, where lawmakers approved a bill last year that established a $100-million emergency cleanup fund and created new full-time teams of oil spill wardens and biologists. The teams will be stationed at five sites throughout the state, including Long Beach and San Diego.

Also, Congress, motivated largely by the Exxon Valdez spill, addressed a major spill prevention issue last year by requiring all new tankers to be double-hulled beginning in 1995.

Environmentalists are pleased, but they are waiting to see how the new laws are enforced.

“Things are headed in the right direction, but nothing has been implemented yet. If the same thing happened tomorrow, we wouldn’t be any better off,” said Ann Notthoff, a senior planner in the San Francisco office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national environmental group.

Locally, the Coast Guard imposed new restrictions designed to prevent another accident at the Huntington Beach terminal, which is operated by Golden West Refining Co., a Santa Fe Springs oil refinery.

Coast Guard investigators concluded that the American Trader sat on its anchor because of a combination of forces, including near-zero tide, currents and improper ship positioning.

Golden West Refining had failed to conduct routine water depth surveys and the Brandenburger Marine pilots who guide ships into the terminal did not pay enough attention to the depth and falsely assumed that there was more of a cushion, Coast Guard officials said in their final report. The ship also was slightly out of position as it berthed, they said.

Among the new Coast Guard requirements are annual ocean-floor surveys conducted by Golden West and a limit on tanker size to maintain at least a six-foot clearance between the ocean floor and the anchors, taking into account weather and sea conditions. BP America said it is even more cautious by leaving an additional five-foot cushion.

Capt. Jim Morris of the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in Long Beach said the terminal is as safe as it possibly can be.

Although the Coast Guard took no disciplinary action against any of the parties involved in the Huntington Beach spill, the issue of liability remains unresolved.

Last month, the state attorney general filed a multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit against three key players in the accident: BP America, Golden West Refining and Brandenburger Marine.

“I don’t know if anyone is concerned with pointing a finger. We’ll only need to do that to the degree that negotiations don’t work,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Dennis Eagan. “All the defendants are culpable for penalties . . . but they seem to want to settle and we seem to want to settle. The chances are this will not go to trial.”

The suit seeks compensation for loss of recreation, death of birds and fish, long-term harm to wildlife and resources, and effect on the area’s tourism, businesses, sales tax receipts and other economic factors. In addition, it pursues fines for violations of state water pollution laws and payment of unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses by governmental agencies.

The dollar amounts have not yet been calculated, although prosecutors said they want a settlement in the millions of dollars.

“There was a good month and a half where people could not go down to their favorite beaches. They weren’t even allowed to walk on the sand,” said David Pryor, a state parks department supervisor who oversees lifeguards at Bolsa Chica and Huntington State beaches, where oil washed ashore, and Crystal Cove, which was spared. “It’s hard to put a dollar figure on that.”

The Huntington Beach Oil Spill

On Feb. 7, 1990, 400,000 gallons of Alaskan crude oil spilled into the sea off Huntington Beach after the American Trader struck its own anchor while mooring at an offshore pumping terminal. In the next week, the spill blackened beaches and killed wildlife. Now that the beaches are pristine again, the focus is on recovering money from the companies responsible for the damages and preventing future spills.

Companies Involved: BP America Inc.: Cleveland-based oil company that owned the oil. Golden West Refining Co.: Santa Fe Springs refinery that operates the Huntington Beach tanker terminal. Brandenburger Marine: Employer of the ship’s mooring pilots. American Trading Transportation: Owner of the American Trader, the ship in the spill. Not named in the lawsuit because of a federal injunction but could be added. LAWSUIT: The state attorney general’s office expects to negotiate a multimillion-dollar settlement of a lawsuit it filed in January against key players in the spill. The suit seeks compensation for ecological, economic and recreational losses, as well as punitive damages. LEGISLATION: After the spill, the state established a $100-million emergency cleanup fund and created five full-time teams of oil-spill wardens and biologists to investigate and assess spill damage. One team is stationed in Long Beach. Also, the federal government passes a law requiring all new tankers to be double-hulled, beginning in 1995. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE * A small amount of oil washed into a sensitive 25-acre bog, the Huntington Beach Wetlands. Possible long-term ecological damage is unders study. * More than 1,000 birds and millions of tiny marine creatures were killed. Details from studies of long-term effects are being withheld, pending litigation. * About 15 miles of shoreline from Sunset Beach to Crystal Cove were touched by oil. Beaches are clean now, but long-term ocean effects remain unknown. CLEANUP: BP America Inc. spent $35 million on the cleanup and has been largely reimbursed by the insurer of the tanker American Trader. Cities have been reimbursed for cleanup costs, but the county and state have not. The oil industry’s spill response team from this region will have more than doubled its skimming capability by the end of 1991. TANKER TRAFFIC: Tankers now maintain 11 feet of clearance from the sea floor, more than what is mandated by regulations created after the accident. To comply, tankers carry less oil and use the mooring more frequently. Since the spill, 18 tankers have unloaded about 300 million gallons of oil. Huntington Beach has asked the state to shut the mooring down.