Valdez Tank Samples Go to Lab; Suit Put on Hold

Samples taken from the tanks of the Exxon Valdez have been sent to an independent lab in Sorrento Valley in the hope of determining the makeup and toxicity of the milky blue substance that has sporadically discharged from the crippled tanker since last Monday, U. S. Coast Guard officials said.

Scientists were expected to finish gathering samples from within 15 of the Valdez’s tanks by Monday afternoon, the officials said. Analysis of the material, earlier found to contain equal parts of weathered crude oil and marine life, could take up to a week.

Meanwhile, state authorities were drawing up written conditions Exxon Co. must meet before the Valdez can be moved into state waters for repairs, officials said. The negotiations put on hold a lawsuit filed Friday by the state against the oil company.

Anti-Exxon Demonstration

Also Monday, more than 2,000 San Diegans demonstrated on Fiesta Island against Exxon, forming a replica of the well-known circle with a slash through it, around the word Exxon in large, black letters .

“It was something San Diegans seemed really concerned about, so we took some action,” said Pam Finn, program director for radio station KKYY-FM, which sponsored the early-morning protest. “San Diegans care about their environment. This was just a forum in which they could show the world that they do care, and that they don’t want their waters polluted--that even the slightest amount of oil is too much.”

Exxon Shipping Co. officials called the demonstration “unfortunate.”

“I think if people know the facts . . . and then made their assessments, I think they would choose not to protest,” said John Tompkins, the company’s fleet services manager.

The 987-foot tanker on Monday was 14 miles northeast of Pyramid Cove on San Clemente Island, the probable site for removal of large steel plates that are dangling from the ship’s hull and preventing it from entering San Diego Bay for repairs, the Coast Guard officials said.

They said they had not sighted any new discharges from the tanker. However, the state Department of Fish and Game reported at about 1 p.m. seeing two new sheens--a brownish slick 1,500 yards long by 200 yards wide and a bluish sheen about a mile in diameter--about 10 miles southwest of the Valdez, in what is considered a shipping lane. The Coast Guard, which flew over the area after the report, found only the blue sheen, said Lt. Larry Solberg.

“Whether or not it came from the Valdez is hard to say,” he said. “The Coast Guard saw only one of them . . . and it was in a normal shipping lane.”

Dissipating Rapidly

Solberg said that the sheen was dissipating rapidly but that the Coast Guard was able to collect a sample of the substance for testing.

The collection of samples from inside the Valdez’s tanks is not expected to reveal much more than what scientists already know about the discharge, officials said. Coast Guard tests confirmed last week that the bluish-brown substance leaking from the Valdez contains both very old oil and marine life, in about equal parts. But it is unclear how dangerous or toxic the substance could be to marine life.

“One of the things the state and I would like to know is the potential” of the discharge, said Gary Petrae, coordinator of scientific support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assn. Petrae is heading the team of scientists gathering samples. “But I would estimate that the extremely toxic and even relatively toxic oil residues are gone.”

A state Fish and Game official said Saturday, however, that the discharged substance could pose serious environmental problems to marine life off San Diego.

“Even though it’s weathered oil, one of the problems in the Prince William Sound spill has been the effects on sea otters as the oil has moved through the food chain,” said Reed Smith, pollution response coordinator for Fish and Game. “We feel there is pollution coming off (the Valdez), and that it could have the same kind of effect.”

The tanker, which was towed from Alaska after hitting a reef and dumping 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, was scheduled to enter San Diego Bay last Tuesday for a nine-month, $25-million repair job at National Steel & Shipbuilding Co., which built the vessel in 1986.

Entry Delayed

But the discovery last Monday of dangling steel plates, which were peeled back during the 2,200-mile trip, and the discharges believed to be coming from the Valdez, have delayed its entry.

The written agreement, expected to be drawn up by state officials late Monday or early today, will stipulate certain conditions that must be met before Exxon is allowed to move the tanker into state waters to remove the six massive plates that were damaged.

The plates, at least one of which is hanging about 70 feet from the bottom of the ship, prevent the vessel from clearing the bottom of San Diego Bay, where it will undergo repairs to the damage incurred in Alaska.

“Once the written terms are agreed to, there’s no need to issue an injunction, because the very thing the injunction asked for has been accomplished,” said Ed Manning, chief environmental counsel to Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, a member of the State Lands Commission, which joined the attorney general’s office and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in San Diego in filing suit last Friday.

“The state agencies involved want to make sure all the conditions are taken care of, they’re in writing and Exxon agrees to them,” Manning said. “It’s there as a safeguard.”

The conditions include no discharge of oil from the ship in state waters, which extend 3 miles from shore; a 24-hour waiting period between the last discharge and the moving of the ship to state waters; a contingency plan for prevention and cleanup of further discharges while in state waters; a biological study of the removal site before and after the tanker has the plates removed, and full liability for all costs incurred by the state.

Exxon officials are expected to agree to the conditions, which are similar to those issued Thursday by Fish and Game Director Pete Bontadelli, state officials said.