Oil spill into Ventura County creek raises concerns for endangered species

A leak in a pipe linking storage tanks at a Vintage Petroleum facility north of Fillmore was detected during a regular inspection Tuesday afternoon. The spill flowed into Tar Creek, a tributary of Sespe Creek.

Government officials and biologists insist the spill of only about five barrels -- along with 50 barrels of oil-laced groundwater, or about 2,100 gallons -- poses no immediate threat to endangered species in the area.

But environmentalists worry that such a spill just a few miles from Tar Creek's junction with Sespe Creek could pose long-term problems for endangered and threatened species, such as the California condor and steelhead trout.

"Any time you introduce hundreds of gallons of oil into a relatively pristine ecosystem, you're going to have significant impacts," said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, a nonprofit group that monitors land use in the national forest.

The forest, which includes the famed Big Sur coastline, stretches from Monterey County into northern San Luis Obispo County and Ventura, Santa Barbara and Kern counties.

The spill, blamed on a leak caused by recent cold weather, occurred in a developed oil field northwest of Hopper Mountain, an area that includes federal and private land within the forest's borders. Although original estimates suggested it could take up to three weeks to clean the three miles of creek despoiled by the spill, a company representative said Friday the job should be completed late next week.

"We regret that this happened. Our employees out there work so hard to avoid this type of thing. We'll figure out some preventative measures" to avoid a recurrence, said Jan Sieving, spokeswoman for Occidental Petroleum, which acquired Vintage last year.

About 40 people -- Occidental staff and workers from its subcontractor, Rancho Dominguez-based Advanced Cleanup Technology Inc. -- are using berms made of earth, vacuum trucks, absorbent pads, flotation devices and a boom to clean up the crude, described as having the consistency of motor oil. A second, backup boom is installed a mile from the Sespe to try to ensure that oil doesn't get through to the bigger creek.