Unocal Faces Charges Over Ocean Spills : Lawsuit: Probe reveals 600,000 gallons of petrol thinner leaked from its oil field into waters near Santa Maria. Company defends its actions.

Unocal Corp. and six current and former employees were charged Friday with 118 misdemeanor violations for allegedly polluting the ocean and ground water near its Guadalupe oil field and failing to report the spills properly.

The charges, filed by San Luis Obispo County Dist. Atty. Barry La Barbera, allege that between 1985 and 1993 the company repeatedly spilled diluent, a petroleum thinner used in pumping heavy crude oil at the oil field near Santa Maria.

More than 600,000 gallons of the clear, diesel-like fluid leaked from the field into the ocean and ground water during the eight-year period, according to a joint investigation by the state Department of Fish and Game, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the district attorney’s office.

Unocal has insisted that it properly reported all of the spills as soon as company officials learned of them in 1990. The oil company also said it has cooperated with authorities and recovered much of the spilled diluent by pumping it from wells.

“We are very disappointed the district attorney has decided to file these charges,” said Janet McClintock, a spokeswoman for Unocal. “In 1990, we told the authorities about these leaks and we have been cleaning them up ever since.”

For several years, animal rescue workers have complained that an oily sheen found on marine mammals in the Central Coast region has killed dozens of sea lions, seals and other animals, but the investigation has not shown whether the Unocal spills were responsible.

The six individuals named in the indictment have all worked at one time or another as supervisory personnel at the oil field, authorities said. At least four of them still work for the company, McClintock said.

The charges against the oil field supervisors include discharging pollutants into the waters of the state, failure to begin cleanup of a spill in marine waters and failure to report spills. Unocal itself was named in 14 separate counts.

The large number of separate charges against the seven defendants results from the filing of different counts for violations that allegedly occurred during different time periods between 1985 and 1993.

Over the past year, authorities twice searched Unocal offices and carted away nearly 100 boxes of records and computer files in an attempt to track the spills and reconstruct how much diluent leaked from the oil field.

Recent tests requested by the regional water board found that the underground plume of petroleum thinner has spread inland under the oil field, in some places floating as much as five-feet thick on top of the ground water.

The district attorney’s office refused to discuss the case Friday and issued only a three-sentence statement announcing filing of the charges. But Unocal officials immediately mounted a vigorous defense of the company’s actions.

“We have cooperated with their efforts to look for contamination,” McClintock said. “These charges notwithstanding, we remain committed to cleaning up the problem.”