Final Permit Granted for Coastal Oil Tankers : Energy: Chevron will be allowed to load up to 50,000 barrels daily for shipment from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles.

Despite last-ditch arguments from environmentalists and commercial fishermen, the California Coastal Commission granted the final permit needed for Chevron Corp. to begin using oil tankers between Santa Barbara and Los Angeles.

At a hearing Wednesday in San Diego, the commission voted 8 to 3 to approve operation of the Gaviota Interim Marine Terminal, where Chevron and its partners in the Point Arguello offshore oil field plan to load the tankers. All that remains is for the state Lands Commission to renew the lease of the terminal site, which all parties expect to occur in late March or early April.

The Gaviota Terminal Co., which owns the facility, had asked for a three-year permit to load 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The commission on Wednesday agreed to only 50,000 barrels daily.

Chevron has asked for interim tankering permission while a land-based pipeline is built to carry the oil to Los Angeles. Shipment could begin by late spring.

Gaviota Terminal Co., operated by Texaco Trading & Transportation Inc., is owned by Texaco, Chevron, Exxon Corp. and Dallas-based Oryx Energy Co.

In January, the commission approved Chevron’s most critical permit--the right to use tankers in coastal waters. Wednesday’s approval had been considered routine, but the commission faced a barrage of questions from environmentalists and Santa Barbara commercial fishermen. They raised a long list of concerns, ranging from fears of health hazards posed by radar tracking of the ships to whether fish are harmed or scared away by the noise from a dropping anchor.

Many opponents remain suspicious that Chevron and its partners in the end will avoid supporting a pipeline and will press to make tanker traffic permanent along the coast. Shipping the oil by tanker is cheaper than paying the cost of building a pipeline.

In any event, the permits require tankering to stop by Jan. 1, 1996, regardless of whether a pipeline has been built.

The double-hull tankers Chevron must use will be monitored for the entire length of the voyage and must stay within traffic corridors or face up to $30,000 a day in fines.

The oil producers must also keep records of all voyages, leave the tankers in port in bad weather and maintain a standby tug near Los Angeles in case a vessel needs assistance. The tankers will carry about the same amount of oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill. One tanker will travel the route about every five days under the current plan.

Commercial fishermen who supported the permit testified that the fish they had encountered were not perturbed or frightened away even by the air bubbles from scuba diving equipment. Also, several witnesses said that no studies exist to prove health dangers from the proposed radar units.

Commissioner Dorill Wright, saying he had had some experience with military radar, dismissed the radiation hazard as “minuscule” to fishermen in offshore waters.

Linda Krop, staff attorney with the Santa Barbara-based Environmental Defense Council, representing several environmental groups, said that environmentalists will appear at the Lands Commission hearing to oppose renewal of the terminal lease. She said environmentalists are also looking at the possibility of suing the Coastal Commission over the January shipping permit awarded Chevron and its partners, possibly on grounds that it violates provisions of Santa Barbara’s local coastal plan.

But even when Chevron begins tanker transport, the tanker wars won’t be over. Exxon Corp., which has an offshore field just south of Chevron’s, began the permit-approval process for its own interim tankers in December with an application to Santa Barbara County. Unlike Chevron, however, Exxon wants to use single-hull tankers and to continue such use for as long as five years.