RINCON : Oil Spill Cleanup Progressing Slowly

Cleanup is progressing at a series of oil spills in the hills west of the Ventura River, but officials said it could take months before the ground is dry enough to reach some of the sites.

Tom Haug, an inspector with the Coast Guard, said Thursday that the earth is still shifting in the Rincon area north of Ventura, where at least six oil spills were reported earlier this week due to heavy rains.

“They’re going really slowly moving earth and accessing the sites because the ground is not stable,” Haug said. “There could be more damage.”

Two oil companies--Vintage Petroleum and CalResources--reported six spills over the past 10 days due to downpours that washed out pipelines and uprooted holding tanks.

The largest two spills occurred on leases north of the Ventura River that leaked nearly 1,700 gallons of crude oil into the canyons above the river, officials said.

“Most of the oil is already picked up,” Haug said. “Right now they’re just putting supports under the exposed pipelines, trying to support them in case there’s more rain.”

Susan Hersberger of CalResources said Thursday that the $250,000 cleanup at those two sites could be completed by this weekend.

“There’s one area that’s taking a little longer to clean up,” she said, “because there’s dense growth of poison oak in the area.”

At Vintage Petroleum, where at least four holding tanks damaged in the slides remain perched on unstable hills, company officials flew over the sites Thursday and reported no additional damage.