Crews Work to Clean Up Oil Spill at Marshland : Environment: Some crude-contaminated water has seeped into the ocean. Dead waterfowl and other animals are surfacing at ecologically sensitive lake.

About 200 workers scrambled Sunday to clean up more than 10,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled across a one-mile stretch of beach and fragile marshlands near McGrath State Park.

The oil spill, which occurred early Christmas morning when a transfer pipe operated by Bush Oil Co. ruptured, is among the largest in Ventura County history.

By Sunday afternoon, animal rescue workers had recovered more than a dozen birds injured or killed by the slick that tarred the highly sensitive wetlands.

Officials at Bush Oil said Sunday they did not know what caused the eight-inch-diameter pipe to break. A company spokesman said the pipe, which carries oil between two storage tanks, had been tested for stress within the past year.

The incident was under investigation Sunday by officials from the state Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. Fish and Game Lt. Mark Caywood speculated that either corrosion or stress from vibrations of a nearby roadway may have weakened the pipe.

Bush officials said the pipe had no mechanism to alert workers if the oil pressure changed dramatically. Oil had been spilling for at least three hours before crews responding to reports of oil in the ocean could trace it to the Bush facility.

Oil from the ruptured pipe spilled into a canal carrying runoff from Oxnard fields into tiny McGrath Lake. Some of the oil-contaminated lake water seeped into the ocean.

Environmental cleanup workers from four local companies labored through the night Saturday to try to contain the damage. Bulldozers and crews with shovels pushed oil-stained sand off the beaches, skiffs pulled booms across tiny McGrath Lake, and 13 boats worked half a mile offshore to contain a widening oil slick.

“You can’t put the genie back in the bottle, so the best we can do now is work to get this cleaned up as quickly as possible,” said John Grant, a biologist dispatched to the scene by the state Department of Fish and Game. By midday Sunday, signs of environmental damage were surfacing: Workers found a dead muskrat, seven dead birds and several more oil-drenched birds that could barely move.

Six animal rehabilitation experts from Los Angeles and Santa Barbara wore protective white suits and heavy rubber gloves while searching the edges of the lake for injured or dead waterfowl.

At one point, Mimi Wood, an employee of the Berkeley-based International Bird Rescue and Research Center, raced from the wetlands cradling an oil-covered mud hen.

“Can you believe he’s still alive?” she asked Fish and Game biologist Melissa Boggs as they tried to swab oil from the bird. “He’s got a chance to survive.”

Fish and Game officials said the area is a home to a wide variety of waterfowl and plant life. “Unfortunately, we can expect to see them turning up dead in larger numbers over the next three or four days,” Grant said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Brose said Berry could face legal action if the company is found to be negligent. “If there had been an indication that the pipeline was weak, or if there is evidence that they were negligent, there is the potential for felony prosecution,” he said.

Officials from Bush Oil, a subsidiary of Berry Petroleum Co. in Taft, said they could not predict a time frame for the cleanup.

“We’re going to continue with this as long as it takes,” said Ron Klarc, operations manager for Bush Oil. “The complete operation won’t be done for some time.”

Cleanup of the lake was primarily being accomplished with four small skiffs using booms to encircle the oil, channeling it into skimmers that suck the oil from the water’s surface.

Normally, the lake is used to collect runoff from area farms, but Fish and Game officials said they planned to construct a dam and bypass line to prevent more water from running there for now.

“It’s crucial that we keep the lake level,” Caywood said. “If it rises, it will paint the plant life with oil, and if it goes down it will smother the life beneath the oil.”

A brief rainfall Sunday was not enough to make a difference, Caywood said. “We’ve got to keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get a storm in here now,” he said. “That can only cause trouble.”

On the beach, about 100 workers hurriedly scooped oil-drenched sand into plastic bins so rain would not send it back into the ocean.

Fish and Game officials said the lake and wetlands were more heavily contaminated than the ocean, and this spill was not considered a serious threat to ocean life.

Biologist Grant found no evidence of harm to sand-dwelling creatures. Caywood said whales migrating near the coast at this time of year probably would not pass close enough to be affected.

Officials were also watching Ventura beaches. “We haven’t found any oil on the beaches to the north, but this stuff is still moving around, so we want to follow it closely,” said Kirk Sturm, an officer with the state Parks Service.

By late Sunday, three vessels from Clean Seas, a cleanup consultant hired by Berry, and seven more from the volunteer Fisherman’s Oil Response Team had contained all but about 400 gallons of oil on the ocean.

“Right now, an area of concern has been keeping the oil from floating into the (Ventura) Harbor,” said Clean Seas manager Darryle Waldron. “We’ll be able to boom that off if it becomes a threat.”

Fairly calm seas were predicted for today, which Waldron said may help crews contain the ocean spill.

Once the cleanup crews have pulled out, Berry spokesman Raymond L. Hatch said, the company will have a chance to tally the costs of the effort. Hatch said they will include not only the cleanup but the loss of revenue from the Oxnard oil field, which generates 1,200 barrels of oil a day.

Times correspondents Jeff McDonald and J.E. Mitchell contributed to this story.