Use of Federal Fund OKd for Oil Spill Cleanup off Coast : Pollution: Appellate court upholds decision that $100-million Trans-Alaska Pipeline Liability Fund can be tapped to help pay for damages to environment and business in 1990 mishap.

An appellate court has ruled that a federal cleanup fund of $100 million may be used to help pay damages caused by the devastating 1990 oil spill in Huntington Beach.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a lower court decision that the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Liability Fund may be held liable for the damages from the spill.

“This decision will make it easier for people to collect money,” said Deputy Atty. Gen. Linus Masouredis, who argued on behalf of the state’s interests that the fund should be used to repay victims of the spill for their losses.

Huntington Beach City Atty. Gail C. Hutton, who is suing the fund, the oil company and various other parties for the city, also praised the ruling.

“We’re very grateful that the court has seen fit to protect the city’s opportunity to recover some of the damages,” she said.

About 400,000 gallons of Alaskan crude were dumped into the ocean near Huntington Beach on Feb. 7, 1990, when the tanker American Trader run aground of its own anchor.

The spill caused extensive damage to the environment, blackening at least 15 miles of county beaches and killing numerous birds and marine life. It also harmed the business and tourism interests throughout the county and forced the temporary closure of a popular harbor.

Trial still must be held to determine the extent of the damages and how much each of the defendants must pay.

The fund, which is administered by operators of the Alaskan pipeline, is one of many defendants in the complicated civil lawsuit which arose from the oil spill. Under federal law, the fund is liable for up to $100 million in damage from any spills from ships carrying oil from the pipeline to U.S. ports.

Attorneys for the fund argued unsuccessfully that the federal law, called the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act, did not apply in the Huntington Beach case because the American Trader had not been loaded in Alaska.

Rather, another ship had received the oil in Alaska and had transferred it to the American Trader at sea.

Randall D. Moss, a Washington-based attorney who represented the fund’s interests, said the law was “ambiguous” on the extent of its liability.

“I’m pleased that the issue has been resolved,” he said.

Other defendants in the lawsuit, including the oil company and two of its subsidiaries, had argued in the court that the fund should also be included as a defendant in the case.

“Essentially everybody wanted the fund in the case,” said Masouredis.

Hutton called it the “deep pockets” all the plaintiffs were looking for. The plaintiffs now only have to prove damages in the case and not negligence in order to get the fund money.

The Huntington Beach spill was the largest oil spill in Southern California since 1969, when an offshore platform spewed millions of gallons of crude into the Santa Barbara Channel.