Firm to Pay $3.2 Million for 1993 Ventura Oil Spill
OXNARD — An oil company agreed Thursday to pay $3.2 million in fines and restoration costs in connection with the worst oil spill in Ventura County history, an 84,000-gallon discharge of crude oil into a freshwater lake at McGrath State Beach in December 1993.
Under the agreement announced by the state Department of Fish and Game’s Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response, Taft-based Berry Petroleum Co. did not accept responsibility for the oil spill, which occurred when a ruptured underground pipeline spilled more than 2,075 barrels of crude oil into McGrath Lake. More than 160 birds were killed, and the spill damaged nearly seven miles of beach, dunes and wildlife habitat.
“Our top priority with this settlement was obtaining adequate funding for restoration of the natural resources injured as a result of the spill,†said spill prevention and response administrator Pete Bontadelli.
The settlement is the largest ever involving an oil spill in Ventura County, according to Vivian Murai, staff counsel with the office.
At least $1.3 million of the settlement will be used for restoration projects in the affected area, to be conducted by state and federal agencies; $1.025 million will be paid to agencies in charge of clean water and protecting endangered species. An additional $620,000 will go toward cleanup and other costs related to the spill.
“We’re just happy to have this unfortunate incident behind us,†said Jerry Hoffman, president and chief financial officer of Berry Petroleum. In August 1994, the company paid $600,000 in fines and, along with one of its foremen, pleaded no contest to criminal charges associated with the spill.
Hoffman said the company has already spent about $10 million to mop up the oil. He estimated that the total costs to the company from the spill will be about $15 million.
The pressurized pipeline first ruptured Dec. 16, 1993, spilling 40 gallons of oil. But the spill was not reported and the pipeline remained in use until a major rupture Dec. 21, which leaked for days before being discovered, according to Glen Reiser, a private lawyer hired by the Ventura County district attorney’s office to prosecute the criminal case.
“This was a mammoth oil spill. It was unprecedented in Ventura County,†Reiser said.
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