State Investigates Spill into River : Pollution: Mixture of crude oil and water is heading toward the ocean. Firm defends report that said no waterways were affected.

State officials Saturday began investigating an oil spill flowing into the Santa Clara River and toward the ocean.

The spill, 30,000 gallons of water mixed with light crude oil, wound its way down a remote Santa Paula canyon into the Santa Clara River after overflowing from a Unocal storage tank.

“There’s no doubt it’s in the Santa Clara River and on its way to the ocean,” said state Fish and Game Lt. Chris Long, who was assigned to the case Saturday.

Initial reports from Fish and Game wardens said that no wildlife or habitat were severely damaged as a result of the spill.

Thick globs of oil covered the edges of Adams Barranca on Saturday--seven days after the state Office of Emergency Services was told of the release. The barranca is a small tributary that merges with the Santa Clara River before moving on to the ocean.

Investigators said Unocal executives notified the state of the release March 12, but that information from the oil company prompted wardens to slow their response.

According to Long, Unocal told the state that the release was contained and had not entered any waterways. Based on that information, an investigator “did not see it as something he had to respond to,” Long said.

Dick Marshall, a field superintendent for the oil company, defended his report to state officials, saying that rain Saturday might have caused some of the oily residue to flow into the water.

But he said his interpretation of the law was that Adams Barranca is not a waterway.

“A waterway is something like the Santa Clara River,” he said. “Not Adams Barranca.”

Long interviewed Unocal workers at the company’s Santa Paula facility for much of Saturday. He said he has requested internal company documents relating to the release.

Company officials said seismic activity, apparently after the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, caused a substantial increase in the amount of oil that naturally seeps from century-old tunnels in Adams Canyon.

Production foreman Walker Kozer said the company maintains a series of pipes along the tunnel edges that collects the crude and transports it to nearby storage tanks. But the tanks can only hold 100 barrels--4,200 gallons--before overflowing, he said.

The company replaced the 100-barrel storage tanks with 500-barrel tanks last week, Kozer said. At least two dozen employees were working every day to clean up the oil, he said.

“We dammed it up, sopped it all up and cleaned it up,” said Kozer, who called the cleanup 80% complete Saturday.

Kozer estimated that 500 of the 30,000 gallons that flowed over the edge of the storage tank was crude oil.

Meanwhile, crews in Santa Barbara County worked to clean up 2,000 gallons of crude oil that spilled from a Mobil Oil processing facility at Elwood Beach north of Santa Barbara late Wednesday.

Mobil said the spill was detected when golfers noticed oil oozing into an area near the tee for the 12th hole at Sandpiper Golf Course, which is next to Mobil’s Elwood Beach facility, said Mobil spokeswoman Shauna Clarke.

Clarke said crews worked all day Friday and most of Saturday to build holding dams on the beach, where the light crude oil had flowed.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and correspondent Scott Hadly contributed to this report.