Cleanup of Spill Could Cost Firm $10 Million : Environment: Berry Petroleum must pay for cleaning crews, materials and the work of various public agencies.

The massive cleanup of the 84,000-gallon oil spill at McGrath State Beach could cost Berry Petroleum Co. $10 million and last for months, a state official said Friday.

“It will be in the high seven digits or the low eight digits,” the official, who requested anonymity, said about the cleanup costs. “This spill will be to Berry Petroleum what the Exxon Valdez spill was to Exxon.”

In addition to paying for cleaning crews to work on the spill, Berry will be responsible for the cost of materials used in the effort and for the work of public agencies responding to the spill.

For the Coast Guard alone, the cost after just five days had reached $53,000. “As time goes on, it will be much, much larger,” said Chief Warrant Officer John Hollis, a Coast Guard spokesman. “Each day the costs skyrocket.”

Officials of Berry, the parent company of pipeline operator Bush Oil, said they would not confirm the cleanup costs but have said they are covered by insurance for such incidents. Officials from Berry’s insurance carrier were not available for comment Friday.

Talk of the cleanup’s cost came as a Berry spokesman acknowledged the company does have information about when the spill occurred and why it was not detected, but will not discuss its findings because of the ongoing investigation.

“That information will all come out,” said Ray Hatch, Berry’s spokesman. “But we feel there will be nothing served by giving any of that information out at this time.”

Officials investigating the spill have said that oil may have been seeping from a ruptured transfer pipe for as many as three days before the leak was discovered.

Until Friday, Berry officials said repeatedly they did not know why it took so long to detect the leak.

Plans to excavate the pipe so that investigators could learn more about what caused the break were postponed Friday. Officials said that two to three other pipelines run through the same plot of land and must be accurately located before digging could begin.

Once the pipe is removed from the ground, investigators said they would be able to move forward with their investigation at a more rapid pace.

“That’s really the key piece of information that we’re missing right now,” said Petty Officer Tom Haug, one of two U.S. Coast Guard investigators. “I’m not comfortable looking at the records alone.”

As investigators from the Coast Guard and the state Department of Fish and Game waited for clearance to begin excavation of the pipe, more than 200 workers continued to remove oil from the beach and wetlands near McGrath Lake.

Late Friday, officials at the scene said 1,747 barrels of oil had been recovered from the 2,000-barrel spill.

The number of skimmers on the lake was reduced from three to one, and the emphasis turned to the marshland around the lake.

“We’re in the process of transition,” said Cmdr. Jim Rutkovsky, the incident commander for the Coast Guard. “We’re going from an immersion stage to the point where we’re being more deliberate.”

The oil that crews are collecting now is more difficult to pick up because some of it is in thin layers and some of it is stuck to reeds and other plants around the lake, he said.

“What we’re doing now is going in there on foot and cutting away the brush by hand,” said Capt. Joe Pecsi, the Fish and Game’s operation coordinator.

“Any of the vegetation that’s been soaked by oil needs to be removed,” Pecsi said. “Fortunately, because the crude was pretty solid at the lake’s surface and the vegetation was very dense, the oil only penetrated about a yard into the marsh.”

Workers also continued the meticulous process of raking small beads of oil from the beach as they wash in with the tide.

“That’s a process that’s going to take several days,” Pecsi said. “It’s very tedious work.”

The beach from Channel Islands Harbor to the Santa Clara River mouth will remain closed, officials said.

State officials continued to find birds either killed or injured by the oil spill. The count of birds killed in the oil-stained wetlands rose from 122 to 133 Friday.

“We’re continuing our wildlife rehabilitation efforts, and we’re still monitoring the impacts this spill has had on the wildlife,” Pecsi said. “And we’re making some headway with the cleanup, but the hard part has just begun.”