REFLECTIONS / EARTH DAY 1970-1990 : ‘We think a lot about the environment we will leave . . . ‘ : Chuck Webster is the crisis manager for British Petroleum.

When Chuck Webster arrived in Huntington Beach last February, he had a huge job of containment on his hands.

Nearly 400,000 gallons of British Petroleum oil was gushing from the slashed hull of the tanker American Trader, threatening to ruin a popular stretch of Orange County beaches. As BP’s crisis manager, it was Webster’s responsibility to see that damage to the coast--and to his company’s reputation--was limited.

On both counts, BP received high marks--unlike Exxon Corp., which last year took a drubbing for its response to the vastly more extensive spill of its oil in Alaska. Webster, with a bit of help from cooperative weather conditions, managed to turn an environmental disaster into a public relations success.

He proved that, these days, it is simply smart business to show sensitivity to the public’s deepening environmental concerns.

“I have a philosophy and this is it,” Webster said. “If you can work in a collaborative fashion with people from the federal level down to the local community, getting the best ideas on the table in an atmosphere of respect, then you can get the job done sooner and with less impact on the environment. This beats trying to find solutions in an atmosphere of chaos and finger-pointing.”

The 41-year-old Webster, who is based in Cleveland, was particularly skillful in handling the news media, releasing up-to-the-minute information on every facet of the accident and subsequent cleanup. “For a company to try to hide something,” he said, “it’s going to come out.”

Webster, who spent Earth Day 1970 in Vietnam, said he believes that the environmental evolution that some companies are undergoing is a reflection of their work force.

“As society has become more attuned to the environment, so are the people who are employed by businesses,” he said. “We are campers. We are bikers. We are hikers and swimmers. We think a lot about the environment that we will leave to our children.”