Local News

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― A veteran shipping pilot whose ship spilled 58,000 gallons of oil after striking the Bay Bridge was apparently warned by the Coast Guard beforehand about his course.

The San Francisco Chronicle quotes the pilot's attorney as saying the pilot immediately radioed back that the ship's instruments showed he was on the correct course.

The newspaper report suggests there may have been a language barrier prior to the accident. But even though the ship's crew is Chinese, a spokesman said the "ship's master and all of its officers speak English."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Friday for the San Francisco Bay Area, where hundreds of workers tried unsuccessfully to contain a large oil spill from a 900-foot cargo ship that struck a support tower of the Bay Bridge earlier in the week.

The emergency declaration came as authorities made a grim pronouncement: Most of the 58,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the Bay will never be retrieved and eventually will be absorbed into the ecosystem. It also came as criticism mounted of the U.S. Coast Guard's alleged delayed response to the incident.

The state of emergency included the city and county of San Francisco and the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma -- all of which have been impacted by the huge spill.

"I have signed an emergency proclamation, so all the state's resources can be coordinated to address this oil spill. I have also directed my Office of Spill Prevention and Response to work with the ship owner and federal and local authorities to bring in whatever resources are needed to clean this up immediately," said Schwarzenegger.

The U.S. Coast Guard - which headed the response to the spill - acknowledged miscommunication with local officials, but insisted it didn't impede their efforts to corral the oil.

However, the attorney for the pilot who was guiding the ship away from the Port of Oakland when it hit the bridge piling issued a statement Friday saying he notified authorities immediately, and soon after alerted them that there was a sheen of oil on the water.

According to the statement from Capt. John Cota's lawyer, it took cleanup crews at least 90 minutes to respond. Coast Guard logs of the day's events shows a response team on the scene in about a half hour, but it took much longer for oil-skimming vessels to arrive.

"Until the time that Capt. Cota left the ship there had been no response whatsoever to his and the other pilot's reports, which, of course, allowed the spill to spread," said the statement from attorney John F. Meadows.

Cota's statement bolstered the criticism of local officials, who have said the Coast Guard did not tell them until 9 p.m. Wednesday, more than 12 hours after the accident, that 58,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel had spilled into the bay, not the 140 gallons that was initially reported.

Tides carried the heavy fuel that poured from the ship's oil tank under the Golden Gate Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean, fouling miles of scenic coastline, closing at least 16 beaches and canceling weekend outdoor events.

Added to the closure list Friday was the Berkeley Marina, as the incoming morning tide brought more oil globules and soiled birds into the marina and surrounding parks. Among the hardest hit was Angel Island, where all ferry service to the island was cancelled as of Friday.

The incident is nowhere near the 11 million gallons spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, but it is believed to be the biggest in the San Francisco Bay since 1988 and was threatening thousands of birds and other marine life.

Oil skimmers and shoreline cleanup crews continued mopping up the damage. But the oil is thinning as it spreads, making the cleanup efforts more difficult. As the oil spreads and dissipates, crews will find "diminishing returns" in their skimming efforts, said Barry McFarley, whose private recovery firm the O'Brien Group was hired by the ship's owner to handle its response to the spill.

Approximately 18,000 feet of boom current, which acts as floating oil barriers, have been dispersed throughout the bay, McFarley added. About 60,000 feet of additional containment barrier boom were also readied for deployment.

The number of gallons sucked up remained at 9,500 gallons Friday - no change from a day earlier.

Beaches searched for birds, Concerns about crabs

Lt. Rob Roberts, an investigator with the California Department of Fish and Game, said by the weekend most of the oil will be beyond containment and capture. While the retrieval of oil from the water may be nearing its end, the beach cleanup and wildlife rehabilitation will continue.
  
"We could be out here for weeks," said Roberts, who spoke to reporters at Rodeo Beach, in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where about 60 workers in yellow protective suits were collecting contaminated sand and putting it in plastic bags. "We could be out here for months. It may be a process that goes on for years."

Fish and Game officials said they have received hundreds of reports of oiled birds found on Bay Area beaches. So far, 73 live birds have been recovered and sent to a recovery center in Solano County; 19 were found dead.

"Oil and feathers don't mix," said Yvonne Addassi, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Fish and Game. "This is not good for the birds."

Seabirds appeared for now to be the hardest marine creatures hit by the spill, she said. Their fellow sea dwellers, such as whales, dolphins, seals and otters, haven't turned up on shores needing assistance.

The spill did threaten to disrupt the much anticipated Dungeness crab season, set to begin on Nov. 15.

Area fishermen planned to meet Saturday to discuss delaying the season, said Larry Collins, vice president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association.

"If the crabs get contaminated and someone gets sick, then you've lost your market forever," said Collins, who believes the season should be postponed until the spill is cleaned up. "This is a big mess."

Schwarzenegger's emergency proclamation came after meeting at the spill command post at Fort Mason with state, federal and local officials overseeing the cleanup.

His proclamation makes additional state personnel, funding and equipment available.  Schwarzenegger also directed a state office charged with preventing and responding to oil spills to dip into an industry-financed trust fund to help pay for the cleanup.

"This has done tremendous damage to the environment, to wildlife and to the birds," the governor said. "We have to clean up as quickly as possible."

Coast Guard response criticized

The governor said he was satisfied with the pace and scope of clean-up efforts so far. City officials remained upset, though, mantaining they weren't given accurate information about the size of the spill.

A new set of Coast Guard logs that surfaced Friday suggested the agency had concluded by 4:49 p.m. that 58,000 gallons had spilled, rather than the 140 gallons reported earlier.

That contradicted a different Coast Guard log obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. It said that at 4:49 p.m., the Coast Guard believed 400 gallons had escaped.

Rear Adm. Craig Bone, the Coast Guard's top official in California, conceded the agency should have done a better job keeping local authorities informed.

"That is not acceptable," said Bone, who didn't explain the delay but insisted the Coast Guard's response to the incident was immediate and aggressive.

"What I want to impress upon people is, there was an immediate response, there was an immediate response to prevent further loss, there was an immediate response to gather as much as you possibly can," Bone said.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer sent a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad W. Allen, who told her Friday that the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate the agency's response, according to Boxer.

"I will continue to be in close touch with him on this issue and hold him to his word that those responsible for the severe breakdown in communication will be held accountable," Boxer said.

Aides said she was mulling whether to ask for a hearing by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, which has oversight of the Coast Guard. The U.S. House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation will hold a hearing on the adequacy of the system for reporting spills and the effectiveness of the Coast Guard response, officials said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the city would have responded differently if it knew the full scale of the spill, and Bone said Friday "their concerns were warranted."

The ship, called Cosco Busan, had just left the Port of Oakland and was proceeding to sea when it hit a tower beneath the western section of the Bay Bridge. It caused no structural damage to the span, but the vessel's hull suffered a large gash.

Investigators continue to puzzle over why the ship, one of hundreds that pass under the bridge each year, struck the tower. The ship's pilot, Capt. Cota, was one of the most experienced of the seamen who guide massive ships through the bay's treacherous waters; he's been on the job for 25 years.

"How does a ship, with that much space available, how does a ship hit the bridge?" Schwarzenegger asked Coast Guard officials as he was shown a map of the bay and where the vessel struck the bridge.

"That's what we're investigating," answered Coast Guard Capt. William Uberti, captain of the Port of San Francisco. "That shouldn't have happened."

Coast Guard investigators were focused on communications between the ship's crew, watch officer and helmsman and vessel traffic authorities in the moments before the incident. Investigators will look at the ship's communications with the Coast Guard's Vessel Traffic Service, which is akin to an airport's air traffic control system.

Chief investigator G. Ross Wheatley of the Coast Guard said the pilot and the shipping company could face civil penalties as a result of the administrative investigation. He indicated that Cota had answered every question asked of him by investigators.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Cota has been involved in six on the job incidents dating back to 1993.  The most recent was a reprimand last year for letting a freighter run aground when it was approaching a dock in Antioch.

Phone Numbers: Oil Spill Claims & Sightings
The U.S. Coast Guard has established the following phone numbers for the public to provide information on the the movement of oil sheens, as well as any oiled wildlife.

To report oil sightings call 985-781-0804
To report oiled wildlife call 877-823-6926
To submit a claim for oiled property call 888-850-8486

(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)