The Fight Against Future Spills : Still, considerable progress one year after the Huntington Beach accident

One year ago today, when the tide was low and the sea was calm, a tanker struck its mooring 1.3 miles off Huntington Beach, home of some of California’s finest surfing beaches. The American Trader’s own anchor gored its hull, spewing 400,000 gallons of crude oil onto about 15 miles of shoreline. Only favorable winds and fast action by crews kept the spill from making a more serious intrusion into environmentally sensitive wetlands, but still, about 1,000 birds died and the long-term damage to the coastal food chain is still unknown.

The response from Sacramento and Washington in the last year has been encouraging, and a lawsuit by the state attorney general against BP America Inc., lessee of the tanker, and others is likely to be settled. Surfers and other beach-goers hardly mention the spill anymore. But vigilance is needed to ensure that the oil industry and government are doing all they can to prevent future spills and to enhance cleanup capabilities when they do occur.

In the wake of the spill, and the much more disastrous Exxon Valdez one in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, Congress OKd controversial legislation requiring new tankers to be double-hulled, beginning in 1995. Also, the Coast Guard has beefed up enforcement, requiring annual ocean-floor surveys at the Huntington Beach terminal where the spill occurred. At the time of the spill, existing surveys were so old that the ship’s captain thought he had 13 more feet of water to drift in than he did.

In Sacramento, lawmakers last fall passed the most comprehensive oil-spill prevention and cleanup plan in the nation. The legislation created a $100-million fund, financed by the oil industry through a new 25-cent-per-barrel tax on oil processed in the state. Much of it is to be used to finance full-time teams of oil-spill wardens and biologists at five sites, including Long Beach and San Diego.

The legislation also provides for the appointment of an “oil czar.” That selection now falls to Gov. Pete Wilson, who should choose someone with experience in preventing oil spills. That person also must be committed to resource protection and be tough enough to stand up to oil companies.

BP America has said that it learned much from the spill, especially about mobilizing cleanup teams and handling slicks. To its credit, it has shared that information with the industry and generally has conducted itself responsibly.

Still, BP and other oil firms should be urged to find new ways to clean up spills more efficiently. Existing booms and skimmers are woefully inadequate, especially in winds or strong swells.

But, above all, emphasis must be put on prevention. Whether at Prince William Sound or in a surfer’s paradise in Orange County, experience has taught that the best way to avoid damage from an oil spill is never to allow it to happen.