Berry Petroleum Agrees to Pay Fine for McGrath Lake Spill : Environment: County prosecutors reach tentative pact with firm responsible for 84,000-gallon oil leak. The ‘substantial’ amount is not disclosed.

Ventura County prosecutors have reached a tentative agreement with Berry Petroleum that calls for the company to pay a hefty fine for spilling more than 84,000 gallons of crude oil into McGrath Lake near Oxnard late last year, authorities said Monday.

Glen M. Reiser, the Oxnard lawyer retained by the Ventura County district attorney’s office to prosecute the case, said the company has agreed to pay a “substantial criminal fine” as a result of its negligence. The amount of the fine has not been released.

The settlement agreement, including a guilty plea to a single criminal charge, would insulate Berry Petroleum from any further criminal prosecution by county officials, Reiser said.

But under the agreement, prosecutors will continue to investigate a possible criminal charge against Berry production foreman Ralph Edmonds, who was on duty when the underground pipeline ruptured last December, Reiser said.

“That was one of my conditions,” Reiser said. “We are going to look at his case separately.”

The special prosecutor declined to give many details about the proposed settlement, saying terms of the pact would be made public at a press conference to be held in a few weeks.

Details of the proposed agreement will be made public after the state attorney general’s office and the U. S. attorney general’s office review the deal, Reiser said.

“We don’t want any resolution of the criminal case to have any adverse impact on a civil case that the attorney general or the U. S. attorney might prosecute,” Reiser said.

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Attorneys for Berry Petroleum said Monday that they have agreed to pay a specific sum in damages. But they said some terms of the proposal have yet to be worked out because the company is concerned about exposing itself to liability in a civil case.

“We have agreed in principal to pay a significant fine, but there are other important conditions still subject to negotiation,” said Berry attorney Larry L. Hines. “My guess is we will be able to reach an agreement with the district attorney’s office and consummate it within the next couple of weeks.”

But Hines said more is at stake than the amount of the criminal fine.

“The precise terms of what happens at this level could have a substantial impact on what happens in later civil proceedings,” he said.

The tentative settlement came late Monday afternoon, after Reiser and attorneys for Berry Petroleum met for several hours to discuss potential resolutions.

Reiser announced last week that he had gathered enough evidence to prosecute the company and up to 10 of its executives on several criminal charges.

The deal hammered out Monday “is satisfactory to the district attorney” and “will represent a good resolution to the county,” Reiser said.

Reiser declined to disclose the amount of the criminal fine, saying it would be made public after the agreement is drawn up and signed by attorneys on both sides.

Berry Petroleum is a Taft-based firm that owns Bush Oil, which operated the pipeline that broke on Dec. 21.

The line spewed 84,000 gallons of thick crude oil into McGrath Lake and on to the ocean for four days before a sheen was spotted by federal officials on Christmas morning.

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At McGrath Lake just off Harbor Boulevard, hundreds of migratory birds coated with thick, black oil died while rescue workers scrambled to clean them and save their lives.

Huge clumps of oil covered the surface and edges of the mile-long lake as cleanup progressed over the next two months.

More than seven miles of coastline was closed as hundreds of cleanup workers combed the shores with rakes and adhesives, picking up thousands of tar balls.

Lawyers for Berry Petroleum said last week that they plan to sue up to six public agencies for failing to respond to earlier reports of the spill, exacerbating the leak by tens of thousands of gallons.