Earthquake: The Long Road Back : Crews Work to Contain Crude-Oil Spill in River : Ecology: A 15-mile slick spreads to Piru after pipeline breaks during jolt. Area is home to two endangered species.

Cleanup crews scrambled Tuesday to contain a 15-mile-long slick of crude oil that spilled into the Santa Clara River, spreading from Santa Clarita to Piru, after a nearby pipeline ruptured during Monday’s earthquake.

Officials estimate 147,000 gallons leaked out of the 10-inch-wide pipeline before the spill was discovered at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

By late Tuesday, state officials at the spill site had not found any injured fish or birds, said Mary Gale, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. However, she said it was too early to determine the spill’s full effect on the river and its wildlife.

“Generally, you don’t see (injuries to birds) in the first 24 hours,” Gale said.

The segment of the river stained by the spill is home to two federally endangered species--the three-spined unarmored stickleback fish, and the least Bell’s vireo, a bird. Also threatened are several species of birds and fish that state officials consider vulnerable.

The pipeline is owned by Long Beach-based Four Corners Pipe Line Co., a subsidiary of Arco. The line, used to transport oil from Kern County to several Los Angeles refineries, broke in nine places during the quake, an Arco official said.

Two breaks in a 100-yard area in Santa Clarita, one in the pipe and another in the pipe’s pumping station, contributed to the river spill.

The pipeline, which is more than 50 years old, was not pumping oil at the time of the quake but held a residue of heavy crude, said Albert Greenstein, an Arco spokesman.

More than 200 workers hired by Arco used booms and constructed earthen dams to contain the spill downriver just south of the town of Piru.

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Officials at the spill site said less than a quarter of the oil had been collected late Tuesday, and they predicted the spill could take months to clean up completely.

“This is a very large oil spill,” said Reed Smith, a Fish and Game official. “It’s a mess.”

Monday’s spill was the second in the same environmentally fragile stretch of the Santa Clara River in recent years. In January, 1991, nearly 75,000 gallons of crude gushed from a ruptured Mobil Oil pipeline, polluting a 15-mile stretch of the river and killing at least 186 birds, wildlife authorities said.

“It’s heartbreaking that the river is taking another blow,” said Cat Brown, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “The short-term and long-term effects of a spill this size could spell disaster for that area.”

After the 1991 spill, Mobil contributed $200,000 to environmental projects to settle a criminal complaint arising from the spill.

Gale said she did not know if Arco might be liable for damages from the spill. “We’re only a day and a half into it,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable making a statement about the possible prosecution.”

The spill is also the second in less than a month involving a pipeline in an environmentally sensitive area. On Christmas Day, more than 2,000 barrels of oil spilled from a ruptured pipeline in McGrath Lake near the mouth of the Santa Clara River.

“They say pipelines are supposed to be safer than other means of moving oil, but I guess it’s all relative,” Brown said. “I think these spills argue for stronger standards in terms of construction and maintenance of these pipelines.”

Greenstein said pipelines tend to move with the ground during an earthquake, but that in this instance the quake was centered too close to the pipe to avoid damage.

“When it’s that strong and that close, there isn’t much you can do,” he said.

Of the nine breaks along the line, the two in Santa Clarita were the only ones to spill oil into a body of water. Another break in the same pipeline spilled into a San Fernando street Monday and ignited, destroying 17 vehicles, damaging four homes and severely burning a man passing the fire on his motorcycle, Greenstein said.

“All of these problems have been highly unusual for a pipeline,” he said. “It’s very unfortunate that any of this had to happen.”

Times staff writer Myron Levin and correspondent Thom Mrozek contributed to this story.