SANTA CLARA RIVER : 13 Birds Injured in Oil Spill Returned to Wild

Weeks of scrubbing and rehabilitation paid off Saturday for 13 birds as they returned to the wild after being injured by oil spilled into the Santa Clara River.

Rescue crews from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the state Department of Fish and Game and the International Bird Rescue and Research Center watched as biologists pulled the cleaned birds from cardboard boxes.

The 13 Virginia and Sora rails were found covered in oil after a pipeline in Valencia ruptured during last month’s earthquake and dumped about 200,000 gallons of oil into the river.

“It’s very satisfying to see that they at least get a chance to survive,” said Barrie Todd, a U. S. Fish and Wildlife worker on hand for the send-off. “A very small percentage of the wildlife injured in a spill like this are found and successfully rehabilitated.”