Oil Firm Seeks Public Agency Dispatch Files in Spill

Threatened with legal action from Ventura County, attorneys for the company that spilled 84,000 gallons of heavy crude into McGrath Lake have requested dispatch records from police and fire crews that were slow to respond.

In a letter received this week, Mark R. Pachowicz, a former prosecutor who now works for a private law firm, seeks “any and all Oxnard Police Department dispatch logs which pertain to or involve the release of oil at issue.”

The request on behalf of Bush Oil comes the same week that county supervisors declined to pursue a federal grant to fund an inventory of the area’s underground oil and gas pipes.

Three other significant pipeline-related leaks have blackened Ventura County canyons and waterways since the McGrath Lake spill near Oxnard, a fact that prompted supervisors to consider mapping underground pipes.

No such maps now exist.

The letter to the city of Oxnard also asks for copies of all fire logs, tapes of communications between the city and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, and any written police correspondence about the oil spill, which soiled miles of beaches and killed hundreds of migratory birds.

Oxnard Assistant City Atty. Paula Kimbrell said the request, addressed to City Clerk Daniel Martinez, with copies sent to the city attorney and the police and fire chiefs, would be complied with as soon as feasible.

The letter comes as investigators wind down their probe of Bush Oil and Berry Petroleum, its Taft-based parent company. Criminal charges in the case could be filed within weeks, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

An underground pipe operated by Bush Oil near Harbor Boulevard and Gonzales Road leaked for at least three days before federal officials patrolling offshore rigs noticed an oily sheen on the ocean Christmas morning.

But by then, more than 2,000 barrels of thick black crude had spilled from the ruptured pipeline, which Bush officials said transported no more than 600 barrels of crude a day. A barrel contains 42 gallons.

The Public Records Act request is an apparent attempt to limit the responsibility of Bush Oil, since at least six emergency response agencies, including Oxnard police and fire crews, ignored early reports of the spill.

One state park ranger alerted by campers the day before Christmas about oil leaking into McGrath Lake was subsequently disciplined for failing to follow up on that sighting.

Another Christmas Eve morning report from a Ventura electrician to the Channel Islands Harbor Patrol was referred to Oxnard police and fire dispatchers without further investigation.

Pachowicz said Wednesday that he does not know what information may be on the dispatch logs he requested.

“I don’t know whether it’s going to hurt or help our case,” he said. “I don’t know what’s in them. This is merely a request that we be provided the information.”

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Raymond Hatch, a Berry executive who has served as the firm’s spokesman, would not discuss the case Wednesday.

Special prosecutor Glen M. Reiser, the Oxnard attorney retained by the district attorney to handle the case, said Wednesday that criminal charges could be filed against the oil company within weeks.

But Reiser downplayed the impact that the requested information would have on the oil company’s defense.

“How quickly government agencies reacted to the spill is meaningful from a public service standpoint, but it doesn’t relate to Berry’s responsibility,” he said.

Reiser said criminal charges could result in state prison for Berry executives if it can be proved that the oil company knew or should have known that it was responsible for allowing crude into marine waters.

The criminal case could be filed either as a felony or misdemeanor, Reiser said, although even the lesser charge could mean County Jail time and a fine of $500,000 for each day that Bush is found liable.

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The state attorney general’s office is putting together a potential civil case, which must prove specific environmental damages. State inspectors are now assessing the immediate and long-term effects of the spill, Reiser said.

“Obviously, you can’t make a decision overnight as to what the environmental impact--both chemically and geologically--has been to the area,” the special prosecutor said.

State Fish and Game and other wildlife experts estimated shortly after the spill that it would take years, perhaps decades, for McGrath Lake to fully recover.

In a related development, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday not to apply for a federal grant to map the lattice-work of underground oil and gas pipes in the county and to assess the risk of future pipeline failures.

Supervisors said they did not want to duplicate the efforts of Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria), who has introduced a bill that would require mapping of most of the buried oil and natural gas pipes in California.

A hearing on that bill--AB 3261--is scheduled June 1 before the Assembly Ways and Means committee, said Gavin Payne, O’Connell’s chief of staff.

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Some board members also said they are less concerned now about the risk of future pipeline breaks than they were immediately after the four winter spills.

“We have a much better state of affairs than we initially thought,” said Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, who represents the McGrath Lake area. “There were several leaks in a row and that led us to worry. But when we took a harder look at it . . . everybody’s comfort level went up.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn went even further, saying he opposes O’Connell’s efforts to map underground pipelines.

“The oil companies pretty much know where those lines are,” he said. “I don’t want to see the state come down with all kinds of regulations that aren’t going to produce anything but a huge bill.”

Environmentalists Wednesday criticized the board’s decision, saying local officials should not rely on the state to define the extent of future problems.

“The least we could do is map the pipelines,” said Cynthia Leake, vice president of the Environmental Coalition of Ventura County.

Pat Baggerly, an Ojai Valley environmentalist, said supervisors apparently bowed to pressure from local oil interests.

“It sounds like they’re courting the oil industry,” she said. “But they can court the oil industry and still know where all the pipelines are.”

Times staff writer Daryl Kelley contributed to this report.