Criminal charges considered for San Francisco Bay oil spill

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal investigators were considering Monday whether to file criminal charges against the crew members of a container ship that struck the Bay Bridge and ripped a gash in its fuel tank, creating the San Francisco Bay's worst oil spill in nearly two decades.

The ship was being detained at the Port of Oakland. Crew members of the Asia-based Cosco Busan were questioned on board the vessel beginning Sunday, said Coast Guard attorney Christopher Tribolet.

Any charges would likely fall under the negligence provisions of the Clean Water Act and the U.S. transportation code, Tribolet said.

The Coast Guard notified the federal prosecutor's office Saturday about problems involving management and communication between the officers on the ship's bridge at the time of the crash. Capt. William Uberti, the U.S. Coast Guard commander for the bay region, declined to elaborate, except to say: "It was just the way that everybody interacted" on the bridge.

The bridge personnel included the helmsman, watch officer and ship's master, as well as the pilot, Capt. John Cota, among the most experienced of the seamen who guide ships through the bay's treacherous waters.

It was unclear how many crew members were still aboard the ship Monday. Questioning began Sunday, and at least six members were found to have immigration or visa issues, authorities said. Foreign crew members on board any ship in U.S. ports need the permission of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to disembark, Tribolet said.

Cyndy Shafer, an environmental scientist from the California State Parks system, tended to an oil-covered bird that she rescued Sunday at the Berkeley Marina in Berkeley, Calif. (Paul Chinn ~ San Francisco Chronicle)

Darrell Wilson, a representative for Regal Stone Ltd., the Hong Kong-based company that owns the Cosco Busan, declined to comment on the investigation. A call to the federal prosecutor's office for Northern California was not returned Monday.

The ship struck the bridge early Wednesday, causing no structural damage to the span but leaking some 58,000 gallons of fuel oil into the bay. The thick, toxic fuel has fouled miles of coastline, forced the closure of nearly two dozen beaches and piers and killed dozens of seabirds.

Meanwhile, the head of the Coast Guard defended his agency's response to the spill while pledging a full and transparent investigation.

"On the surface it would appear that we did everything by the book in this case as far as responding," Commandant Adm. Thad Allen said while en route from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco to survey the damage.

"However, having done this work for over 36 years, nothing is as it seems at the start," he said. "We need to recover all the information, make sure all the facts are established."

The Coast Guard has been criticized for a lag time of several hours between when agency officials learned that the spill was 58,000 gallons -- not 140 as initially reported -- and when that information was given to local officials and the public.

Allen said it may have taken time to figure out the extent of the spill partly because gear used to measure how much fuel is in the oil tank were damaged in the crash. He also noted the poor visibility at the time -- a quarter-mile to an eighth-mile in the fog.

"You don't turn 900-foot vessels on a dime," he said, "and given the visibility at the time, I think it would be difficult to assess whether or not the bridge itself was visible."