Oxnard Spill Underscores Threat of Old Pipelines : Environment: Decades-old networks are not subject to safety inspections, official says. Wildlife toll climbs in Ventura County as workers continue cleanup.

The disastrous break of a decades-old pipeline that spilled 84,000 gallons of oil in a wetlands area near Oxnard raises new questions about whether tougher maintenance and inspection standards should be set for aging oil fields, state officials said Tuesday.

“The old pipelines are a problem,” state Resources Agency Secretary Douglas Wheeler said as he monitored the spill at McGrath State Beach. “The problem is that some of them are not subject to inspection for safety.”

The state does not require stress tests of oil field pipelines such as the eight-inch-wide steel pipe found to have leaked about 2,000 barrels of oil into a fragile coastal lake Christmas morning.

Wheeler said he may recommend that new standards be enacted if investigators find that the Oxnard break could have been avoided through annual corrosion inspections and stress tests. He said special attention might be given to old oil fields in coastal zones, where breaks threaten imperiled wetlands.

“Once you have the answer (to the cause of the Oxnard break), then you devise appropriate revisions of state regulations so you have testing commensurate with risk,” Wheeler said.

High-ranking officials at the two agencies that monitor the safety of thousands of miles of pipeline in California said they also favor a tightening of inspection rules for large pipes in oil fields--where maintenance and inspection are voluntary.

“There are a lot of fields in California approaching 60 or 80 years old and there appears to be a need to have additional inspection and testing requirements,” said Kenneth P. Henderson, a top official in the oil and gas division of the state Department of Conservation. “The old pipelines are more at risk to be a problem.”

Officials at Bush Oil Co., which owns the pipeline that broke, were still unable to say what caused the leak or how old the line is. State officials, however, said the line is 30 to 40 years old and probably ruptured because of corrosion and age.

Pipeline breaks are an increasing problem statewide, according to the attorney for the lead agency investigating the spill, the largest in decades in Ventura County.

“The majority of spills we’ve responded to in the last two years have been pipelines,” said Steve Sawyer, staff counsel for the state Department of Fish and Game’s special oil spill prevention and response unit. “Pipelines have become our major focus.”

Meanwhile, the death toll among birds and other wildlife inhabiting McGrath Lake rose by the hour, although crews made some progress in cleaning up the spilled oil.

By late Tuesday, state Fish and Game veterinarian Dave Jessup said 62 oil-tarred birds were found dead and another 32 were clinging to life. But Jessup said he expects the number of dead birds to double or triple before the initial cleanup of McGrath Lake is finished.

“With the limited access to the entire area so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a lot more (dead waterfowl),” Jessup said.

A U.S. Coast Guard inspector said the Bush Co. was granted permission to excavate the section of pipeline that ruptured, but Bush executives said they were not prepared Tuesday to begin digging.

Company officials said their focus is on cleaning up miles of soiled beaches and McGrath Lake, which was still partially coated with a thick layer of crude oil. Officials said 874 barrels of oil--about 44% of the total spill--has been recovered.

More hands and heavy equipment helped workers gain a handle on much of the oil that was discharged into a canal leading to the ocean, but the lake habitat remains badly congested with clumps of tar and oil along its shores.

Five dozen workers from the California Conservation Corps had joined the cleanup fight at McGrath Lake, where volunteers were pulling oil-tarred shorebirds and waterfowl from the wetlands.

At a news conference Tuesday, state and federal officials said they were standing by their Monday estimate that the spill involved up to 2,000 barrels of crude oil. There are 42 gallons of oil per barrel, meaning as much as 84,000 gallons was discharged.

A Bush Oil spokesman said Sunday that the spill was no more than 250 barrels.

Times correspondent Jeff McDonald contributed to this story.