Garden Grove City Facility May Be Source of Oil Spill

Oil that is threatening hundreds of birds in the fragile Bolsa Chica wetlands may have come from a facility operated by the city of Garden Grove 10 miles inland from the fragile coastal marshes, investigators said Monday.

As the probe into the exact cause of the spill continued, emergency workers were dismayed to discover that its size is three times larger than first thought, with pockets of oil and an oily sheen found along the Wintersburg flood control channel that flows through Huntington Beach and reaches the ocean at Bolsa Chica. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter traced an oil sheen along the channel across the county to Westminster Avenue.

Experts expressed concern that the spill--described as waste oil containing contaminants--is not dissipating and evaporating in the sunlight as swiftly as they had first hoped.

“We look at this as a serious incident,” said Patrol Lt. Mark Caywood, incident commander for the state Department of Fish and Game. He and others are urging anyone with information about the spill’s origins to come forward.

Late Monday, a Garden Grove fire official confirmed that his city is working with investigators to determine if the oil came from a city-owned facility.

“We’re just cooperating as much as we can,” Fire Capt. Bill Keen said.

The spill is believed to have started near Westminster Avenue and Harbor Boulevard, moving along the channel to Bolsa Chica, one of the best-known and most environmentally important wetlands in Southern California.

Though most of the oil has been contained in the channel, away from the outer and inner bays at the wetlands, as many as 150 birds may already be fouled with oil, Caywood said.

“If we capture a quarter of them, we’ll be lucky,” he said. “They get sick, they get cold, they go into the bushes, and they die.” Others, he said, may be victims of predators: “Any time you see ravens circling, you know you have a sick bird.”

Since the spill was detected Sunday morning, an estimated 25 oil-soaked birds have been rescued and taken to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach for cleaning and treatment. One bird at the center has already died.

Fearing that more of the oil will flow downstream to foul Bolsa Chica, workers installed at least five new booms Monday and built an earthen dam along the channel at a spot east of Edwards Street in Huntington Beach, said Petty Officer Steve Kegelman, operations section chief for the U.S. Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is working with state Fish and Game officials to coordinate the cleanup.

At a late afternoon meeting, authorities debated whether to use hoses to force the oil downstream, finally delaying a decision until today.

Taxpayers will have to shoulder cleanup costs, expected to be “in the six figures,” one official said--unless the culprit is found.

Though the oil’s composition is still being studied, experts said, it appears to be a type that can be even more treacherous to birds than the more visible black crude oil that fouled Orange County’s beaches in the infamous 1990 American Trader oil spill. The leaking tanker discharged 400,000 gallons of Alaska crude, killing at least 1,000 birds.

The current Bolsa Chica spill is far smaller but still an environmental crisis for bird life, experts said.

As many as 75 to 100 gallons of oil may have polluted the Wintersburg channel, rather than the 30 gallons reported when the spill was detected Sunday, officials said. More than 100 of the oiled birds may perish, experts said. Oil wreaks havoc with birds’ ability to keep warm, fly and even digest food. And even those birds cleaned and returned to the marshes could have their reproductive capacity harmed for a few years or even permanently.

At sunset Monday, dozens of grebes, sandpipers, dowitchers and other birds stood in a faint, coppery oil sheen at the channel’s edge, plunging their heads into the tainted water to find food.

A few oil-tainted great egrets, among Bolsa Chica’s most stately birds, were seen in the area Monday, and one biologist wondered how such large, fast-moving birds could be caught and cleaned.

Officials asked that anyone with information about the spill call the state Fish and Game “Cal-Tip” line at (888) 334-2258. A reward of up to $1,000 is being offered.

Anyone who sees birds stained with oil should not touch them but is asked to call the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy at (714) 963-2123.

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Damage Control

Several floating booms and a dike have been installed along the East Garden Grove Wintersburg Channel to stop oil from spreading to the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Authorities say the oil may have come from Garden Grove.