Kevin Fagan, Zachary Coile & Peter Fimrite, Staff Writers San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, November 10, 2007
High-ranking California politicians and Bay Area residents angry about their oil-splattered beaches demanded answers Friday to why the Coast Guard took so long to notify the public of this week's huge ship-fuel spill and how the sludgy mess was allowed to spread so far.
Coast Guard officials acknowledged they had erred in waiting more than four hours on Wednesday to issue an advisory that 58,000 gallons - not just 140 - had spewed into the water after a ship rammed the base of a Bay Bridge tower, but they insisted their response was appropriate.
California's two U.S. senators, San Francisco's congresswoman, a host of state legislators and residents up and down the damaged coastline were not buying it.
"Something went terribly wrong," Sen. Barbara Boxer told The Chronicle when asked what she thought of the disaster response. "It was not handled the way it has to be handled.
"You are talking about the most pristine part of the country here. We value this ecosystem. This is what makes the Bay Area special. It's just unacceptable," said Boxer, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The delay in notifying the public about the magnitude of the spill was highlighted by the Coast Guard's log of events Wednesday, when the container ship Cosco Busan slammed into the base of a Bay Bridge tower at 8:30 a.m.
That log, which The Chronicle obtained, showed that Coast Guard investigators realized at 4:49 p.m. Wednesday that 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel oil were in the water - not 140 gallons, as they had been reporting all day. But the agency did not say anything publicly until 8:58 p.m., when it issued a news advisory.
"That is unacceptable," Coast Guard Adm. Craig Bone conceded Friday.
The Coast Guard log also says it dispatched vessels at 9:03 a.m. - but the agency also says it only took 20 minutes to half an hour for all 58,000 gallons to belch from the damaged ship, which means the spill likely was complete by the time its vessels chugged toward the scene.
Compounding the finger-pointing on Friday was a statement by the bar pilot's attorney that shortly before the ship hit the base of the tower, the Coast Guard warned the pilot about his course - but the pilot radioed back that his instruments showed he was proceeding correctly.
All parties agreed that there was plenty of confusion.
"We needed to be better at communicating," said Bone of the Coast Guard. But he added that he thought there was nothing more that should have been done to contain the bunker fuel's spread.
Bone, whose agency is investigating the spill along with the state Department of Fish and Game, said there will be a rigorous hunt for wrongdoing by his agency or anyone else involved in the incident.
"Responsible parties will be held accountable," he said.
A host of politicians also are eager for that to happen. Boxer and her fellow senator, Dianne Feinstein, are considering Senate hearings on the spill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, plans to tour the disaster site Monday, and said "it may also be necessary to conduct an independent investigation."
California legislators plan to hold investigative hearings next week, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom promised to seek legal action against whoever is responsible for the damage.
Kathleen O'Leary, who lives in Fairfax, was so disconcerted by the response in her area that her voice shook.
"The rangers are doing their best, but the people who have all the major equipment just didn't show up," she lamented. "I'm really upset at the response of the Coast Guard. It's a very disjointed effort. Abysmal."
She said she has seen oil in Stinson Beach, Bolinas Lagoon and the adjacent Audubon Canyon Ranch area - but no wildlife rescue crews and only two cleanup workers.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to lay blame as he declared a state of emergency for the area Friday morning, preferring to stick to dispatching resources.
"We want to clean this mess up as quickly as possible because there has been tremendous damage to the environment, tremendous damage to the wildlife and birds and so on," the governor said at Crissy Field as he surveyed the devastation.
As of Friday evening, 20,546 gallons of oil had been mopped up on the beaches and waterways by at least 15 crews on foot and 11 boats rigged up to "skim" the gunk into tanks. Lt. Rob Roberts of the state Fish and Game Department said the cleanup is "going to be awhile. We could be out here weeks, we could be out here months.
"This is a process that may go for years."
He said much of the muck will have dissolved into the water by the end of the weekend and will be beyond containment. The last big oil spill in the bay, a 40,000-gallon mess in 1996, took at least two years to mop up.
The company that owns the ship, mindful of the potential legal storm gathering around it, announced that it is not focusing on blame - for the moment.
"We have stepped up to the plate ... the main concern right now is to get this cleaned up and cooperate with the authorities while they conduct their investigation," said Darrell Wilson, spokesman for Regal Stone Ltd. of Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the 810-foot-long Cosco Busan remained moored near Candlestick Point, reeking of oil. The crew was sequestered on board, and nobody was allowed near the vessel. The yawning, 100-foot-long gash in the left side of the ship was so fresh that barbed wire and wooden splinters from the bridge footing it had hit stuck out of the hole.
The ship was given permission Friday by the Coast Guard to dock at the Hanjin company port site in Oakland.
On the bay, ocean and more than 19 beaches throughout the Bay Area - from Hunters Point to Tomales Bay, 40 miles north - rescue workers and volunteers have now collected 94 oil-soaked birds and taken them to recovery centers. At least 28 birds have been found dead. The total number of injured birds is expected to rise into the hundreds.
Globs of oil have been seen as far west as the Farallon Islands, and sticky sheets of fuel are slopping onto the hulls of boats docked in harbors in San Francisco Bay. The swimming portion of the popular San Francisco Triathlon at Treasure Island, which begins today, has been canceled.
Bone said cleanup agencies welcome volunteers, but cautioned that people should call a wildlife rescue organization instead of rushing to the beach.
At Point Isabel Regional Shoreline in Richmond, dog-walkers gaped at splotches of oil floating in the water and splayed across the rocks.
"There are too many people on the Earth," mused Chris York, 42, of Oakland, who was forced to tell his 5-year-old Picardy shepherd, Kyle, "No" to prevent the dog from frolicking in the water as it usually does.
Throughout the day, the strong tides that race out of the Golden Gate tortured Marin County's beaches with coating after coating of oily sludge.
Along Rodeo Beach, two dozen hazardous materials workers in orange suits trudged around the sand shoveling gobs of black goo, mixed with beach sand, and putting it into plastic bags. A Caterpillar tractor toted away huge piles of the bags from the beach.
Sean McLeod, a 41-year-old contractor from Larkspur, came to help out.
"This is my favorite beach," he said. "I come here four times a week. It just kills me to see it like this."
By the numbers As of Friday:
28 birds have died
94 oiled birds
are being rehabilitated
15 wildlife-recovery teams are on beaches
20,546 gallons of fuel oil recovered
11 skimmers deployed on the water
Chronicle staff writers Henry K. Lee, Christopher Heredia, Jonathan Curiel, John Wildermuth, Carl Nolte, Michael Taylor, Jane Kay, Robert Selna and Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report.
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