Gash Found in Aging Pipeline Near the Site of McGrath Spill : Investigation: Officials say discovering the 18-inch seam tear brings them no closer to pinpointing the cause of the 84,000-gallon oil leak.

Crewmen looking for the source of a massive oil spill that leaked 84,000 gallons of heavy crude into McGrath Lake and the ocean found an 18-inch gash Monday in the seam of an aging pipeline buried beneath a Harbor Boulevard broccoli patch.

State investigators discovered the lengthy tear in the oil line about 20 feet east of Harbor Boulevard--across the street from where thick globs of crude oil had accumulated before the pipeline was shut off Christmas Day.

A 10-foot section of the ruptured pipeline was sawed off, cleaned up and transported to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. It will remain there until state officials choose which laboratory will perform metallurgical tests to be done on the pipeline.

But despite finding the exact site where the eight-inch pipeline had broken, Bush Oil Co. and state officials said they are no closer to figuring out why the leak occurred in the first place.

Officials for Berry Petroleum of Taft, which owns Bush Oil, also on Monday were unable to explain how their employees failed to notice that 84,000 gallons of heavy crude did not make it to their storage tank for three days.

They said earlier that the ruptured pipeline normally carried 600 barrels of oil a day and that 2,000 barrels of crude had leaked.

The results of the metallurgical tests will take weeks or months to determine, said Robert Gorham, an engineer with the state Fire Marshal’s office.

“They’ll be looking for the type of pipe, the width, what the strength of the pipe is . . . to pinpoint what type of failure it is,” Gorham said.

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Meanwhile on Monday, traffic was backed up along Victoria Avenue, Olivas Park Drive and Gonzales Road leading from the Harbor Boulevard excavation site after work crews closed off the street, the California Highway Patrol said.

Cleanup officials received permission to close the road at noon Monday after workers excavating the underground pipe complained that the traffic created a safety hazard.

Harbor Boulevard will be closed again today and Wednesday between Olivas Park Drive and Gonzales Road from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..

“We still have to decontaminate and clean up the area down there,” said Raymond Hatch, a Berry Petroleum spokesman.

A state Department of Fish and Game official said he is satisfied that the rupture found on Monday is the only gash in the aging pipeline.

“As far as we are concerned, this rupture is the sole cause of the leak,” said Fish and Game spokesman David Blurton, who said there is no early indication of what may have caused the rupture.

Blurton said his office would not require Bush Oil to remove the rest of the pipeline, but Hatch said late Monday that he expects the oil company to drag the pipe from underneath Harbor Boulevard anyway.

“We’re going to take out the line under the road,” Hatch said. “It’s going to be pressure-tested to make sure there are no more leaks.”

Hatch said the company has not yet decided when or if the line would be replaced.

Dozens of gallons of thick crude oil spilled into the ditch when workers uncovered the 18-inch casing that surrounds the pipeline. Much of it was vacuumed up by late Monday, but workers also used more than 100 cubic feet of an organic industrial absorbent to soak up the oil.

Large pools of crude oil were visible in the brush on the west side of Harbor Boulevard, where workers had toiled since Sunday to clear an area big enough for cleanup crews to enter.

There was no change reported Monday in the number of migratory and shore birds that have died since the spill, which is Ventura County’s worst pipeline break in decades. Officials said Monday that 138 birds have died so far and another 28 oil-tarred birds are near death.

According to a Dec. 30 report from the city of Oxnard, 80% of McGrath Lake--the area where the bulk of the 84,000 gallons of oil was found--is inside city limits. Community Development Director Richard Maggio outlined the spill and cleanup effort as part of a weekly briefing to the City Council.

The report was issued after some early confusion about which law enforcement agency was responsible for the area.

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At least six public agencies--including the Oxnard Police Department--received reports about leaking oil a full day before a federal officials saw offshore oil slicks Christmas morning.

“I don’t know which particular map the dispatchers were using at the time, but I can certainly see the confusion,” Oxnard City Manager Thomas Frutchey said. “You’ve got to have a pretty accurate map to determine boundaries.”

Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said Monday that his department could have used more detailed information when his dispatcher first heard the oil spill report on Dec. 24.

“If we had more knowledge as to the exact location and we thought it was in our area of responsibility, we would respond to it,” he said. “The best way to make sure is if it’s close to the city, we’ll make the call.”