OXNARD : Rising Lake Level Slows Spill Cleanup

Ground water seeping into McGrath Lake has raised the water level about 18 inches, preventing work crews from completing the cleanup of the sensitive oil-stained habitat, officials said Thursday.

State Fish and Game biologist Jim Hardwick said workers had received permission to pump water from McGrath Lake into the ocean on the condition that the water is pumped from the middle depths of the lake.

Hardwick said there are still significant amounts of oil on the lake surface and at the bottom of the lake. But water from the mid-level of the lake was tested and approved by water quality experts, he said. Pumping is expected to begin by today.

Meanwhile, the number of birds reported killed by the 84,000-gallon Bush Oil Co. spill climbed to 188, according to state Fish and Game spokesman David Blurton. Another 32 birds are being treated for exposure to the thick oil, he said.

Also on Thursday, Blurton said six miles of beach extending from the Ventura Pier to just north of the Channel Islands Harbor has been declared clean.

Workers now are concentrating on one-mile stretches of beach north and south of the harbor, where thousands of tar balls were washed ashore in the days after the oil leak, Blurton said.

Excavation work of the ruptured pipeline continued Thursday, as workers along Harbor Boulevard removed tons of oil-soaked dirt from both sides of the roadway.

The road will be closed again today between Gonzales Road and Olivas Park Drive.

Jeff Grimes of the U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday that officials from Berry Petroleum, which owns Bush Oil, told him the company would abandon the line altogether rather than repair the broken pipe.

Bush Oil officials on Thursday would not confirm or deny that report.