SAN FRANCISCO BAY OIL

Monday, the 18th of January was a good night for fog. Breck, Bill and I took a break from work, and ambled over to Keystone Korner to hear a gospel singer named Gideon Daniels who seems to be taking San Francisco by storm. His first set was evidently off so we adjourned to the basement for some psychic refreshment. Meanwhile, most of the straight-laced, immovable people split, and Elvin Bishop sat down to play behind Gideon’s almost straight Baptist revival rap. By the time we floated back Gideon was loose and well into a strong sermon on the evils of plastic food, white power, black power, pollution, and all that stuff. It was easy to drink, laugh and clap along. About 1:00, we dragged our wasted but sanctified bodies outside to discover a beautifully grey and wet fog; far and away the best we’ve seen in a long time. |

I had to steer with my head hanging out the window while I drove back to work. Work, shit. We climbed to the roof to take a good look. From our vantage point south of Market Street where fog almost never goes, we could see just how thick a layer had spread over the city. Twin Peaks and the Haight were just about disappeared. At our end, the Bay Bridge was still visible, but it vanished out by the Treasure Island Naval Base. Around the Golden Gate and over the ocean everything was buried in a syrupy thick, impenetrable layer.

Another illegal substance circulated while the power of the fog to obliterate all those jarring city vibes gave us a feeling of calmed satisfaction. Except for a little traffic on the freeway, all the city seemed shut down. About 2:15 I inched my car across town to fall out, contented.

Fog may be very relaxing to us aging children, but it ain’t nothing to big business. Just because you can’t see where the fuck you’re going doesn’t mean you don’t go there anyhow. Not while there is money to be made. While I was numbly drifting home two Standard Oil tankers were numbly drifting — fused together — under the Golden Gate and into San Francisco Bay.

Morning revealed their mess in all its incredible ugliness. Nearly 900,000 gallons of bunker oil gushed into the Bay and ocean. If you don’t know, Bunker oil is not quite like 3-in-l. It’s a thick, gooey, sticky, heavy, partially refined, black fuel oil; and when it gets on your skin, it’s almost impossible to get off. It smells so revolting that a good strong whiff will make you puke. If you eat it, it’ll kill you.

Curious, but incapable of immediately comprehending the proportions of the slop, I called the Sausalito Ferry to see if their boat traveled near any oil. Their man said, “Listen mister, you couldn’t put a row boat into the Bay without getting it covered with oil.” Slowly, details of the catastrophe forrfted a coherent picture.

Around 1:45 Standard Oil of California’s right hand allegorically smashed into its left. The Arizona Standard, carrying a cargo of crude oil to Standard refineries in the East Bay, rammed into the Oregon Standard bound for British Columbia with 4,200,000 gallons of bunker oil. The impact was so great that the Arizona cut a 70’ by 45’ by 25’ deep gash in the hull of her sister ship.

ITEM: This is not the first Bay oil spill. Just the largest. In 1970 there were over 200 recorded spills. JJ

ITEM: Standard Oil is by far the largest shipper of petroleum in the Bay , In 1969, 432 Standard ships cruised in and out.

ITEM: Despite the amount of oil lost — nearly twice that dumped at Santa Barbara — the two ships are relatively small tankers. Their capacity is 17,000 tons.

ITEM: Already plying the seas are super-tankers capable of carrying 200,000 deadweight tons. And there are one million ton tankers in the planning stage. Imagine that

By week’s end oil had traversed the Bay. Alcatraz was hit hard. So too, Angel Island and the San Francisco Marina. And oil had spread out along 50 to 60 miles of ocean coast: from the southern limit of Point Reyes National Seashore in the north, to Pedro Point down the Peninsula. Nothing was exempt from the goop. Not even the boats and backyards of the Marin County gentry escaped.

Standard made impressive noises about its cleanup efforts. Their nice man quickly let it be known that the company had invested over $10Q,000 in a disaster plan. The big idea was to contain the spill with floating booms and sort of vacuum the oil from the water before it could do any damage. Obviously the plan wasn’t big enough in scope or fast enough in execution. Oil outran the equipment.

Standard also made much of the number of workers it put on the scene. Between 200 and 300 local Chevron employees were deployed as supervisors and another 800 were put on by 4 of Chevron’s maintenance sub-contractors. However, the simple fact is that the lion’s share of the dirty work was done by over 5000 volunteers. Long hairs, suburban matrons, and school kids plunged headlong into the work. Unselfishly, they felt called upon to make a personal effort to save the beaches and the thousands of helpless, oil-covered birds which literally littered them. Even hard core cynics found the response impressive. On several beaches there were simply too many volunteers.

Almost as quickly though, another attitude began to emerge. With some justification, the San Francisco Good Times labelled the volunteers Eco-scabs. An Eco-scab being a person who knows Standard’s history and general nature, but who is nonetheless willing to clean up its mess for free. More details fell into place.

ITEM: Standard Oil is one of California’s most powerful firms. Around the Bay it employs over 6500 people (many of whom volunteered for clean up).

ITEM: As for the $100,000 Standard spent on its master plan, well..*

STANDARD OF CALIFORNIA Dollar Power 1969

SALES..$4,674 million

ASSETS.$6,145 million

PROFITS. .$ 454 million

(source: Bay Area Institute)

ITEM: Standard trucked a load of workers from what we euphemistically call the Dept, of Human Resources Development to one beach after agreeing to pay them $3.60 an hour. But when they arrived there were already so many volunteers Standard decided to truck them back, unpaid.

In addition to working for free the volunteers also provided -Standard with an all important PR red herring. Carefully sidestepping questions of guilt or consequences, Standard, With help from the media and public officials, ran off at the mouth for days about how the ‘tragedy’ and managed to pull people together. Like gee whiz, in the face of common disaster us good people weie able to overcome our narrow prejudices and really work as a group. Hard hat and hippie alike railing up their pants and wading togethei into the murky waters to save the helpless birds. Backs were patted all around. One Standard spokesman went so far as to say, “I’m sure proud of these kids. I don’t know what we'd do without them.” Indeed^

Somewhat less well publicized is the fact that Standard is fully insured for the cost of the dean up operations. The details arc a little fuzzy, but it seems that Standard is insured for up to $ 1.7 million against the spill with Lloyds of London. Also, the oil company belongs to a pair of multi-firm agreements known as TOVALOP AND CRISTAL which reimburse members for expenses incurred in such situations. In all probability, then. Standard won’t have to pay for the clean

"As for the million dollars in penalties which the federal government could impose - don't hold your breath. Even at that, what is a million dollars to a company with a $450 million annual profit? Obviously this government has no intention of doing anything moie than politely rapping Standard’s corporate knuckles. The company is accepting claims on property damage, but only because properly holders have a certain amount of weight to throw around when they are ired as a group.

Fortunately for truth and beauty some interesting action is shaping up* on the legal front. As of writing'time, two major class action suits have been filed. These are submitted on behalf of a large number of people who would otherwise be' forced to press countless individual claims. The bigger of them was filed by everybody’s favorite, Dr. Hip Pocrates, and a S.F. businessman for all the property and boat owners affected by the oil. They ask a total of $3-';5 billion in damage

Morally speaking, the second suit is more important. It was filed by Friends of the Earth attorney Gary Near on behalf of ah volunteer workers. It’s an uncannily simple idea. Since Standard is obligated by law to clean up the mess, it is only reasonable that everyone who worked is entitled to fair compensation for services rendered. The suit calls for $2.5 million in compensation and S1 million for injuries sustained by workers. It also demands a total of $20 million in punitive and exemplary damages and for the “reckless and wanton conduct of the defendant”. As Near puts it, “We are filing because law suits are the traditional American way j>f implementing public policy. $23 million in damages is a way of, hitting Standard Oil in their most sensitive spot, their pocket nerve.”

In their favor is the fact that at least one ecology group handed out time cards to beach workers. And that the Good Times helped out by running a sample time form and an invitation to submit an honest accounting of hours worked. If enough noise is generated by media and word of mouth, Standard may find it expedient to pay some claims. |f|

ITBM: To give some idea of the scope, an estimated 10,000 man hours were spent saving the Bolinas Lagoon alone.

Meanwhile, other people took rather moie direct action. A futile march organized by Ecology Action went to Standard's Richmond Refinery to drop off some dead grebes. Another group called Earth Army called a mass rally and trial on the steps of Standard in San Francisco. It resulted in typical pig behavior and a couple of broken windows, but that’s about all. Some other self-proclaimed revolutionaries appeared at the Standard Building to paint slogans - ‘Ecology grows out of the barrel of a gun/ - on the wall; throw bags of crank case oil around the entrance; and dump oil and dead fish into the fountain outside.

The most absurd street action was the attack on the home of an innocent (relatively speaking) S.F. realtor. The people dumped a mass of oil and sand on a house which foui years ago belonged to California Standard’s board chairman. The realtor says it'll cost between S500 and SI 000 to get rid of the mess.vAU in all; street activities netted Standard a lot of good press and three arrests for the trouble.

In defense of the streeties it must be noted that the wisdom of that sort of political action was moie than equalled by the rhetoric of established politicians who fell all over themselves to go on record as being against oil spills. Everybody but everybody got into the act. Along with seveial state legislators our famous Mayor Alioto demanded stricter regulations on ship traffic in the fog. Not a bad idea, actually; just somewhat after the fact. Then, lest someone important mistake that for some sort of new hard line, he couldn’t wait to add, “Standard Oil appears to have done a great deal to repair the damage and the ^greater fault for an accident of this kind lies with the Mute' of federal and state authorities to enact tougher laws on ship movements."

Senator Muskie walked away with the Hubert Humphry award as the most obvious bagle, piz/a and chitlin eater. He

posed for pictuf#;holding an oily bird and said intelligent things like, “Somehow we have failed to develop the technology and procedures to deal with this hazardous substance.” Other pictures showed him wiping his hands.

And with his usual flair Governor Reagan, that eternally red-headed optimist, demonstrated complete mastery of the situation. He declared at a press conference that, “it is foitunate that if it had to happen at ail it was with etude oil." Only latei did the Governor learn that bunket oil is a medium grade, refined oil. Not crude.

Only the lonely Oakland Assemblywoman, Maich Fong, had anything politically worthwhile to say. She challenged Standard and all Ba> oil industries to put up or shut up by calling for a halt in production, and a shift of all available men and equipment to dean up duty. Hei plan didn't get very far, but it did help to put Standard's claims into proper perspective.

Not to be left out, the Coast Guard conducted an official inquiry and discovered that, yes, there had been a collision and oil was spilled. Official blame was put on the master of one of the ships. The Coast Guard’s inquiry was only important because it refused to seat a Sierra Club attorney who sought to represent the public interest. The Coast Guard said they would take caie of the public interest.

The sun was settling into the smog and the temperature had already begun to drop. Three teenage girls sat huddled together against the rocks. Wet, exhausted, and coveted from head to toe in tar. they had been hauling heavy buckets of oil soaked straw since 9:00 in the morning, They tried to share a cigarette, but it got so stuck in the goo on the blonde’s fingers that it shiedded when she tiled to pass it.

-Along with most ol thou classmates they had cut school to clean tlicit beaches and collect birds. The work these three had been doing at Steep Ravine Beach was especially difficult because the beach is inaccessible and rocky. Straw which was thrown into the oil by boats and earned in by the tide had to be pitchforked, placed ip sticky, heavy buckets, and earned by hand across the rocks. Always conscious of its image Standard had assigned most of its people and equipment to beaches that were sure to attract the most attention. Steep Ravine merited only one Standard sup'cmsoi and no equipment Everyone wav fired*'''';, \

Only about ten birds had washed up here. Elsewhere the numbers-were much,greater In fact there is no way of telling just how many thousands of birds got caught in the oil. ButW the two days immediately following the spill more oh soaked buds were picked up than were found in two months following the Santa Barbara spill.

Oil coated birds are a pathetic sight. Blind and unable to fly, hundteds of them sat in the water, practically impossible to catch until they were half dead. Four of US,'hr two small boats -tried to grab some of the 25 or so grebes and ducks trapped by the boom just outside Bolinas Lagoon. But whenever we approached with our net the bird’s dived and swam. Id the end we gave up empty handed. All we did w$$ tire them further. Unless someone came up with a method superior to ours for capturing these birds, they eventually died of starvation or pneumonia.

Rescued birds require very special treatment. They must be scrubed with mineral oil, covered in corn meal to soak up the goo, and then washed in warm water. The procedure must be repeated several times until all the tar is removed. .Some well meaning workers used detergents, but that just killed the birds.

ITEM' According to the newspaper, 'ironically the bird rescuers relied heavily on another Standard product, mineral oil, to help take the bunker oil off the birds.” Standard even donated some of the oil. Just how ironic is it when they’ve got* you coming and going, hunky?

Removing the oil, though, is only the first step. The birds then require delicate extended care. For tl^e' fit$ few days they must be kept very warm and force fed. Some like grebes heed only be kept for a week or so—untii their bodies reproduce their natural waterproofing. Others, like ducks and loons, must be kept until they molt, which is a question of months. At least one of the several bird cleaning centers someone had the bright idea of playing recorded surf sounds to calm the .terrified creatures. M

Unfortunately, despite all the effort’and inequity, It is probable that only between three and ten percent of the rescued birds will survive the treatment. Rigd&' now the percentage is much greater, but sea birds aie simply not made to survive on land. They have very little resistance to infection.

ITEM: Radio KSAN reported that it was discovered that one major bird center was using the wrong kind of oil for cleaning. Over the phone an official there said it didn’t make any difference since the birds were all going to die, anyhow.

ITEM: Standard had the nerve to promise to make it all better by importing new birds for the ones that die.

By the 30th, most of the obvious mess has been removed. Oil is no longer front page news, and there is a conscious icturn to normalcy. Standard claims that the beaches look bettei now than they have in 20 years. Nonetheless, over 300.000 gallons have not been recovered. Most of it probably lies just off the coast in the narrow, but vital intertidal zone. Some undoubtedly is on the bottom. The rest has formed a murky, swirling emulsion with sea water and is impossible to recover.

“ According to the Sierra Club the worst of the damage is only just beginning. No one, though, is quite sure what it all means to the delicate food chain. There is little immediate danger to fish because they avoid the oil, but less mobile creatures like oysters*' clams, and other tide-pool creatures aren’t so lucky. Many have died and others appear -to-tfi infertile. Whether the survivors are edible is anyone’s guess. If they aren’t, the situation poses a serious threat to the survival of the remaining sea birds.

San Francisco ecologist Bill Mitchel says that the biggest question mark concerns the oil’s effect ,on marine photosynthesis and the tiny organisms which make up the base of the food cycle. If permanent damage is done to the photoplankton, it is inevitable that there will be a long lasting effect on the whole complex ecological balance of the Bay area. The possibilities are so staggering it’s difficult to even know where to begin.

On the other hand, it is plausible that tough sea water bacteria are capable of lemoving the benzene, xylene, and Other lethal elements trom the oil. so that the areas of contamination may quickly repopulate; Exactly howlong this' might take is the big question. The longer it takes, the greater the consequences. A recent Sierra Club teporf on an East Coast oil spill twp years ago shows that that area is stiH suffering from problems directly related to the spill.

So everyone—excepting Standard—has been foiced to adopt a wait and see attitude. San Francisco Bay and 50 miles of coast have been turned into a gigantic marine pollution experiment. No one really wants to talk about the worst that could happen ...-

It is tempting to quit here, and to )ust lei the facts speak fw themselves. But that is too easy. There is much more to talk about. We can’t -allow Standard to slip off the hook so easily. The Great San Francisco Bay Oil Spill isn’t an isolated incident. Thor Heyerdahl says he saw at least one oil slick every day while sailing his papyrus boat across thelocegn. It all v fits into ah-historical situation.

■fiat the collision should have occurred between two Standard ships is fitting. Afterall. according to an official of 'the $an Francisco Marine Exchange, “Standard tuns ships through the Bay almost like'a taxi service,” if it

owned the Bay, J

The ship captains maintained that Standard hadn’t ordered them to navigate through ihe fog. They themselves made the decision. They insisted that Standard’s number one rule is safety first. But whether or not the ships were ordered to sail that night is totally irrelevant. Standard cares about nothing other than Standard’s profits. Nobody every commented on just whose safety was in question. They didn’t even call a temporary halt to shipping while the major clean up was on,

ITEM: The several interlocking Standard 09 companies are the arch-typical example of a cajataBst-imperialist cartel. Standard of California alone operates m 35 countries with over 100 subsidiaries. And in 1969 it had war contracts with the government totaling over $148.5 million.

ITEM: In August, 1970 this same Standard of California was fined a million dollars for wilfully and knowingly refusing to obey the modest safety standards of the Outer Continental Shelf Act of 1953. Standard was convicted on 500 of an original 900 count indictment for criminal violations involving over 90 separate Gulf of Mexico wells. Perhaps you heard something about a 53 square mile oU slick and the kptgesf offshore fire in the petroleum industry’s illustrious history?

ITEM: This same company advertises a gasoline additive, F-310, which is supposed to make a "significant contribution to lessening automobile pollution'. They hired ex-astronaut Scott Carpenter to sell the stuff by conducting hokey experiments with plastic bags tied to auto exhausts. Even the ETC saw through it and charged Standard with deceitful advertising.

ITEM: Even as television station general managers were congratulating Standard on its clean up; the California Secretary of State was filing suit against it for making an illegal, annonymous contribution of $45,000 to defeat State Proposition 18 last November, The called the

“Clean Air Measure,” would have allowed the urn of state gasoline revenues for mass transit and smog researches. Along with another contribution of $30,000, Standard was the largest-single donator to the campaign fund^ which reported spending S348,785 against Prop. 18. Backers of die bill received contributions of $15,275, but wound up in the red

with expenses of over $22,000. Prop. 18 lost by a narrow

mnrpa. _, '

ITEM: Standard OU is the leading marketer of gasoline in Califonda. ,};

In short,r-ahd just In case there was any doubt in your mind-Standard has absolutely no qualms about 1 . J

Contradictions notwithstanding however, saytdgf that Standard is quilt y isn’t really saying very much. Because in a very large sense it is pointless to finger Standard alone as some sort of super-ogre. Standard is no different from any oU company. It could have happened to Gulf, Texaco, or any of them. And prohably will.

The problem doesn’t lie in questions of tighter regulations ' side show, a minor if

obvious by-product of the war on nature. Standard succeeded jn makbig everyone angry and thereby, at least, giving a shot in the arm to S. F.’s languishing Ecology Movement. (Ecology is a fad, folks.) But Standard and all the oil industiy is notlung in itself. It merely provides the juice for the rest of industry. Do you heai it, Motown?

Everybody knows the tempo of the war on the world has to do with capitalism. But it also has to do with our historical, technological, socio-political,. value-oriented, alienated, myopia. Standard Oil doesn’t rip-off nature because it wants to. It does it becau$e It has to. Our way of life demands million ton tankers and Standard merely provides us with what we have collectively come to need. Put that in your pipe toni^it while you live out your alternative life style fantasies.