Operation Rescue : Volunteers Begin Effort to Save Oil-Ravaged Wildlife at McGrath Lake

Workers hired to clean up more than 10,000 gallons of oil that spilled onto McGrath Lake and the nearby coastline were organized hours after the heavy crude was first spotted Christmas morning.

But efforts to save the wildlife that inhabits the wetlands near Oxnard took much longer to mobilize.

Seven birds and a muskrat were reported killed by midday Sunday after a pipeline operated by Bush Oil Co. ruptured Saturday, spilling crude oil into the lagoon through a drainage slough and on to the ocean.

Five sea birds were found still alive, covered with thick coats of foul-smelling oil or sick from having ingested unknown amounts of the toxin while trying to clean themselves.

Experts said they expect to find more injured or dead animals along the lakefront over the next few days as birds continue to retreat from the oil-tainted water to the lake shore.

None of the dead or injured birds discovered by Sunday were endangered or protected species such as the California brown pelican or the snowy plover, officials said.

“It’s really just beginning,” John Grant, state Department of Fish & Game biologist, said of the damage assessment to the habitat in and around McGrath Lake.

“It could get worse, or it could get better,” he said. “But there are probably a lot of birds in the (marsh) that we don’t know about yet.”

Bush Oil is a division of Berry Petroleum Co. of Taft, which is insured for cleanup costs, company President Jerry Hoffman said.

Members of a volunteer group from Santa Barbara were allowed to treat distressed birds that were brought from the marsh, but were prohibited from searching the lake shore because they did not have state-approved hazardous materials training.

“We’re totally at the mercy of the state,” said Estelle Busch, president of the Wildlife Care Network.

“It’s a sad feeling,” she said as she rinsed a shoveler duck with mineral oil on the bed of a pickup truck parked far from the cleanup operation.

“All we can do is work with what we have and do the best we can,” Busch said. “They’d love to be able to say, ‘Get out there and find more birds.’ But they have to follow the red tape.”

Once an injured bird is found alive, workers use cotton swabs to cleanse its eyes and beak of oil.

The bird is then rinsed with mineral oil or saline solution, and a tube is inserted into its throat to pump in a charcoal-based commercial liquid designed to counteract the toxic effects of any oil that the bird may have ingested. All of the injured birds were scheduled to be taken today to Wildlife Care Network facilities.

Mimi Wood, Southern California director of the International Bird Rescue and Research Center, said she could have used more help, but she understood why state regulations require that volunteers be trained.

“You need to be aware of the risks of this (oil) product,” Wood said, whose group was hired to coordinate the wildlife rescue plan.

Wood told would-be volunteers that they would need to complete four hours of certified hazardous materials training before they would be given protective gear to enter the search area and look for injured birds or wildlife.

Basic training classes were hastily scheduled Sunday night and at 6 a.m. today at McGrath Lake, Wood said.

Late Sunday, bird and wildlife experts were still arriving at McGrath Lake and preparing to walk the length of the half-mile-long wetlands in search of more victims of the spill.

The 100-yard-wide lake serves as a drainage pond for runoff from area farms, and also as a wetland habitat to scores of migratory and indigenous waterfowl and other species, Fish and Game officials said.

In one morning rescue, workers rushed to save the life of an oil-drenched coot after plucking it from the lake.

“Can you believe he’s still alive?” Wood asked Fish and Game biologist Melissa Boggs as they swabbed its eyes and beak. “He’s got a chance to survive.”

Wood said it was impossible to estimate the number of birds and other wildlife that may be affected.

“Potentially, there are a lot of animals that live in there,” she said. “The biggest problem they face are the internal effects of the crude oil.”

Of the contaminated sites--the ocean, the beachfront and McGrath Lake--the lake was the most environmentally threatened by far, Grant said.

Officials were also monitoring the beach and a slick that was dissipating offshore.

“First, we’ve got to get this stuff out of here,” Grant said of the McGrath Lake cleanup effort. “Then we get a look at the vegetation, the fauna.

“This is going to be a big cleanup, and it’s going to be expensive,” he said. “It could take years.”