Beach Crew Works to Clean 8,400-Gallon Oil Spill

VENTURA —  Those who flocked to San Buenaventura State Beach on Sunday to soak up some sunshine between storms were routed away from the mouth of the San Jon Barranca by emergency crews working to clean an 8,400-gallon weekend oil spill.

Investigators were still trying to determine the sequence of events that began with two landslides Saturday afternoon on opposite sides of the ridge that separates San Jon Barranca and Hall Canyon.

It remains unclear if the slides occurred simultaneously at about 1:56 p.m., or whether one slide split a natural gas line, leading to an explosion. That blast may have created a second slide that ruptured a 57-year-old Shell Oil Co. pipeline, spilling about 200 barrels of crude that reached the ocean 1 1/2 miles away.

“Those figures are the worst-case scenario. We don’t think it has been that much,” said Texaco spokesman Norm Stanley. Texaco, which also has a pipeline along the ridge, has been working with Shell on the cleanup. The oil companies originally estimated the spill at 500 barrels, or 21,000 gallons, of crude.

Oil company representatives were joined by government officials who coordinated the oil-spill cleanup while holed up in two adjacent Doubletree Hotel conference rooms equipped with maps of the Ventura backcountry, laptop computers and dozens of cellular phones. Agents of the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, a division of the state Department of Fish and Game, huddled around a TV monitor watching videotapes made by helicopter of the explosion site.

The Southern California Gas Co., which did not join the cleanup effort, said it will wait until the slide area has dried out before sending in repair crews. Even though an 18-inch steel pipe burst and ignited a 100-foot tower of flames, which was extinguished within an hour, gas company officials stressed that no customers were ever without service. The company has since rerouted the gas through another set of pipes.

Ken Birdsall, who lives at the top of Lincoln Drive not far from the site of the explosion, sat back and relaxed in the warm sun as oil company cleanup crews sped up the mountain past his home.

“It’s been busy here. There’s been a lot of action,” he said. “I said to one guy, ‘Hey it’s a beautiful day.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but I’ve been up all night.’ ”

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At the other end of the spill, investigators with the Department of Fish and Game were on the scene at the mouth of the San Jon Barranca to monitor the cleanup and to assess any damage to fish and water fowl.

No oil-drenched animals turned up, but the affected stretch of the barranca is inaccessible because of its steep slopes and unstable banks, according to Ken Wilson, a Fish and Game environmental specialist. Deer, coyote, possum, snakes, lizards and birds live in the stream habitat, which is wet only during the rainy season. His agency is investigating whether the area is home to any endangered birds or plants.

Meanwhile, city and county officials continued to worry about a large landslide that has created an earthen dam in Hall Canyon, more than a mile from where the pipes ruptured. The 5-acre landslide, first noticed last week by Sheriff’s Department helicopter crews, has since blocked the flow of Hall Canyon Barranca.

The resulting lake, which is at least two miles northeast of Poli Street, is about 3 acres in size and about 2 feet from overflowing, said Laura Hernandez, assistant director of the county Office of Emergency Services.

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But the real danger is not a spillover, but rather a sudden collapse of the dam during the next heavy rainstorm--which could occur as early as this evening--that may send a wall of water surging down the barranca toward a handful of homes on Hall Canyon Road.

“That would be the worst-case scenario,” Hernandez said. “At this point we consider that to be low risk.”

But as a precaution, city officials decided Sunday to open its Emergency Operations Center, said Ventura Police Sgt. Bob Velez.

“It’s not an imminent danger, but we think it’s a good idea to give ourselves plenty of time to coordinate whether we need to set up evacuation plans,” Velez said.

The homes that could be threatened by a dam break are at the base of the canyon on Hall Canyon Road and on Grove Lane, Velez said.

The county is considering sending pumps to reduce the water level or bulldozers into the canyon to clear the landslide, but that may not be possible because of the narrow access road, Hernandez said.

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And according to the National Weather Service, tonight’s rainstorm could dump from 2 to 4 inches of rain on Ventura County, causing further problems for Ventura’s waterlogged hillsides.

“It’s another pretty big storm--comparable to the one we had [Saturday],” said meteorologist David Gomberg.

This new storm has El Nino characteristics, but it will not be as tropically warm as some of the tempests that have drenched the county during the past three weeks, Gomberg said.

The heaviest rainfall is expected late tonight and early Tuesday and should taper off to light showers by Tuesday afternoon. Then another, smaller storm is forecast for Thursday night and Friday morning. Long-range forecasts call for a series of storms to pound the Central Coast during the next week, Gomberg said.

Shell hired a Carson-based firm, Advanced Cleanup Technologies Inc., to remove the remains of the crude that soiled up to one-eighth of a mile of San Buenaventura State Beach, just south of the Ventura Pier. The area is still filled with trash, driftwood and other debris that flowed onto the beach after the recent winter storms. Using earth movers, the Advanced Cleanup Technologies crew completed construction of a dam across the mouth of San Jon Barranca by midafternoon, preventing oil-contaminated water from migrating into the surf, which was already polluted by urban runoff and recent sewage spills in Ojai and Thousand Oaks. The company, which contained the crude in a series of booms, then pumped the oily water and transported it to a treatment plant for cleansing.

Oil was found on a small stretch of beach to the south of the barranca’s mouth, but officials could not say when the beach would be cleaned up. A smaller cleanup crew was scheduled to stay on site throughout the night, and a full crew was expected back this morning.

Texaco’s Stanley, who functioned as a spokesman for both oil companies, said cost estimates were not yet available for beach and barranca cleanup or the pipe repair. The damaged section will be replaced once the rupture--now buried under about 100 cubic yards of mud--is located.

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Dozens of people out for a beach stroll Sunday watched the 60 emergency workers--some in bright yellow hazardous-waste suits--trying to mop up the crude. Along with Advanced Cleanup Technologies employees, there were workers from the California Conservation Corps, Ventura city and county fire departments and U.S. Coast Guard.

Some people were surprised to hear about the oil spill, but were philosophical about what they considered yet another El Nino-related disaster.’

“It’s scary, but it’s out of our control,” said Traci Falls of Ventura, who was walking with her husband, Duane, and two small children, Alexa and Weston. Falls, who operates a day-care business in midtown Ventura, said she is looking forward to the beaches being clean and safe again so she can return for the children to have their once-a-week exercise outing and picnic there.

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Ventura City Councilman Brian Brennan, a Surfrider Foundation board member, said surfers are upset about the seemingly endless assaults on the ocean this season, but that they understand the power of nature.

“We live in a coastal city, and we can get a lot of storms in the winter,” Brennan said. “The slides are a natural phenomenon. This isn’t a case of people not doing their jobs.”

Brennan was critical, however, of the oil companies for reports that Shell and Texaco officials didn’t initially know whose pipeline had ruptured.

“It indicates a severe lack of knowledge about where the pipes are, who owns them, and what’s going on out there,” he said.