EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Cleanup of Oil Spill Near Piru Continues

Cleanup continued Thursday on a 168,000-gallon oil spill east of Piru that spoiled a 12-mile stretch of the Santa Clara River following Monday’s earthquake.

By Thursday, workers had vacuumed up about 67,000 gallons of the sticky crude, which spilled from a pipeline in Valencia that ruptured in the quake. The spill created a shiny slick on the water and coated river-side vegetation that provides habitat for wildlife.

“We still have a long way to go,” said Albert Greenstein, spokesman for Arco, the parent company of Four Corners Pipeline.

Greenstein said the cleanup temporarily lost momentum Thursday morning when a helicopter pilot and a pipeline official who were inspecting a parallel pipe died in a crash near Fort Tejon in southern Kern County.

The pilot was not identified, but the passenger was Michael A. Scully, 33, of Bakersfield, son of Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Michael Scully was an engineering supervisor for the pipeline company. He leaves a wife and young son.

About 400 workers were involved in the oil cleanup, including nearly 100 members of the California Conservation Corps, Arco crews, California Department of Fish and Game officials, wildlife rescue workers and volunteers. The cleanup area extends from east of Piru into Los Angeles County.

So far, only one or two dead fish have been found and only two oiled waterfowl, one dead and one alive. More oily birds will probably turn up in the next few days, said Mary Gale, spokeswoman for Fish and Game’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response.

They will then be taken to the Ventura County’s Animal Regulation Department, where Fish and Game has a mobile wildlife cleaning and rehabilitation trailer.

The cleanup effort is expected to continue for weeks, Gale said. A weather forecast for up to half an inch of rain this weekend will only delay the efforts, she said.

Meanwhile, the Valencia sewage treatment plant, which discharges into the river, stopped releasing chlorine in waste water at midday Thursday after officials determined that the plant was operating properly.

Fearing that the quake might have damaged the plant, officials added chlorine to kill any bacteria that might have passed through the treatment system. Chlorine is routinely added to waste water, but is usually removed before the water is discharged into rivers, to protect fish and wildlife.

“The combination of oil and chlorine is not friendly to fish or plant life,” Gale said. “It’s toxic.”