Cleanup Crews Also Battling Oil Leaks : Environment: Heavy rains and mudslides are blamed for triggering at least six spills at several local fuel production sites.

The late-winter storms that pounded Ventura County and propelled La Conchita’s landslide also caused nearly 2,000 gallons of crude oil to leak into the mountains looming above the Ventura River, federal and local inspectors said Wednesday.

Torrential rains and mudslides triggered at least six spills at several oil production sites over the past 10 days, Coast Guard and state officials said.

While more than 100 workers continue scrambling to clean up oil-covered mud, officials Wednesday said still more crude oil could dribble from a collection of hilltop storage tanks on steep, unstable terrain in the Rincon area.

“The ground in front of the tanks has slid away,” said Kelly McLaughlin, a Coast Guard inspector. “They’re a tad precariously perched on what’s now more like a cliff.”

Despite that threat, the worst spills occurred over the weekend when landslides ruptured two pipes in the rugged canyons west of the Ventura River.

Field supervisors at CalResources,--a Shell Oil Co. subsidiary that operates 240 Ventura County oil wells--early Saturday discovered two spills that gushed nearly 1,700 gallons of crude oil through the foothills.

Cleanup efforts confined most of the oil to basins carved into the canyons, but authorities estimate that as much as 100 gallons reached the swollen river.

Susan Hersberger of CalResources said one of the biggest leaks occurred just half a mile from the river. The other was about two miles west of the water.

Both of the messes will be cleaned up within a week, she said. Workers are using booms, vacuum trucks and earth movers to collect oil trapped in the basins, Hersberger said.

Investigators said environmental damage from the spills appears minimal because heavy rains diluted the oil that reached the river.

“The company flew the waterways with a helicopter and couldn’t see a sheen from the air,” said Bill Guerard, a supervisor with the state Division of Oil and Gas. “That’s usually the best indicator.”

CalResources also reported a leak March 7, when downpours flushed oil out a rig cellar on a Taylor Ranch lease site. Both Hersberger and federal officials called that spill minor.

The rest of the spills occurred on leases operated by Tulsa, Okla.-based Vintage Petroleum, which operates several mountaintop oil leases north of Ventura.

Company officials said a fuel line carrying a liquid gas condensate was severed Sunday by a mudslide in the hills above Solimar Beach.

“There was a little bit of condensate spray that was fully contained and it was an unmeasurable quantity,” said Robert W. Cox, a Vintage Petroleum vice president.

Meanwhile, a Vintage-operated pressure valve on a pipeline near Faria Beach flew off Monday, spewing more than 40 gallons of crude oil into a creek that drains to the ocean.

Cox said that break was mechanical and unrelated to the recent storms. But a California Department of Fish and Game warden said a power failure caused by heavy rain probably prevented foremen from being alerted that the high-pressure line was approaching capacity.

Clean Seas, an oil-recovery firm based in Carpinteria, was called in to clean up that spill, and most of the oil was recovered, Cox said. Other land-based cleanup crews also responded, he said.

The company, however, is still grappling with erosion beneath a series of nine treatment tanks in Ice Box Canyon northwest of Faria Beach.

Two of the nine tanks--called scrubbers--were crushed or buried by landslides. Authorities are now concerned that more oil could slip down the hillside.

“The valves are shut off, but the problem is that it’s still a very dangerous situation,” McLaughlin said of the Ice Box Canyon area.

Company officials estimated they have lost just one barrel of oil in the destruction, though more than 5,000 gallons remain in tanks on the hillside.

Cox said oil inside the mud-covered tanks can be cleaned up without releasing the crude.

“Assuming that the slide does not continue to impact the partially buried scrubber, those barrels could be vacuumed out,” he said.

Nonetheless, Cox said, production at the leak sites will be stalled for some time.

“There’s going to have to be considerable work done in the field as a result of the mudslide,” he said. “But I don’t know how long it will take to restore operations to normal.”

McLaughlin was not as certain the cleanup would be so easy, primarily because the area is still unstable.

Cleanup crews “can’t just run up there and start doing a bunch of stuff,” she said. “You’ve got to wait for it to stabilize.”

Ruptured pipelines and buried storage tanks are not uncommon during fierce storms, authorities said. Some leaks are inevitable, they said, given the wet weather and rough terrain.

“The county has oil leases all over the place, and many are on very steep hillsides,” said Doug Beach, manager of the Ventura County hazardous materials program.

“It doesn’t surprise me that when you get something major like this storm, you have some problems,” he said.

Environmentalists Wednesday urged the oil companies to learn from the weekend’s spills, calling on them to improve the aging network of pipes and storage tanks to avoid future leaks.

“We had a lot of rain, and accidents are bound to happen,” said Russ Baggerly of the Friends of the Ventura River environmental group.

“We hope this is a strong signal to the operators that some better care may be taken to upgrade the infrastructure.”

Fields is a Times staff writer and McDonald is a Times correspondent.

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Ventura County Spills Storm- related oil spills reported to the Coast Guard and county Environmental Health Division. 1. March 7: Rain flushes oil out of the cellar of a rig owned by CalResources, a subsidiary of Shell Oil. Company estimates one barrel reaches Ventura River. *

2. March 11: Mudslides rupture two- 3 inch pipelines, spilling about 40 barrels of crude oil. CalResources estimates that up to 100 gallons drained to Ventura River. Company employs 75 people and heavy equipment in cleanup effort. *

3. March 12: Mudslides severs Vintage Petroleum pipeline carrying gas condensate. Small amount of fluid runs down hillside to catch basin at bottom of canyon. *

4. March 12: Mudslide crushes one holding tank owned by Vintage Petroleum and buries a second. Ground is eroded from beneath several other holding tanks. Company says some oil is trapped under dirt, but can be recovered. *

5. March 13: Valve pops off high- pressure oil pipeline near Faria Beach. One to two barrels of oil spray onto nearby bushes and drain into creek. Some oil reaches ocean requiring cleanup. Sources: U.S. Coast Guard and Ventura County Environmental Health Division; researched by JULIE FIELDS / Los Angeles Times