West County : OXNARD : Unocal Sends Boats to Clean Missed Oil

Unocal dispatched three cleanup boats off the Ventura County coast Monday after aerial surveillance crews spotted an acre-sized patch of oil missed in the initial cleanup of crude unleashed during last week’s rupture of an offshore oil pipeline.

“It was found about 20 miles offshore and they should be completed with the cleanup by dark,” said Barry Lane, a Unocal spokesman.

Meanwhile, the California Department of Fish and Game planned to begin its formal investigation today into Friday’s rupture of the oil pipeline on Unocal’s Platform Gina, located four miles southwest of Oxnard.

Lt. Reed Smith, a Fish and Game official, said Unocal could face a myriad of civil and criminal charges connected to the spill of 420 to 2,100 gallons of oil.

A work boat, on contract to Unocal, broke the 10-inch pipeline while dragging a grappling hook along the ocean floor to retrieve a lost anchor chain. The hook snagged the pipeline and the boat continued to tug on it until it snapped, Lane said.

“We routinely file charges in oil spill cases,” Smith said. State law, which was strengthened last year, provides a variety of civil and criminal penalties for oil spills. If the company is found negligent, some penalties include fines up to $500,000 and federal prison sentences, he said.

“That pipeline has been there for quite a while and they should have known that it was there,” Smith said.

Smith estimated Fish and Game officials would complete their investigation within a few weeks.