Notes and Sources: The San Francisco Oil Spill of 1971
Photo above: International Bird Rescue
Earth Day 1970 20 million participants: Sophie Yeo, “How the largest environmental movement in history was born,” BBC, April 20, 2020. Politicians had to take notice, too, especially when environmentalists waged campaigns that summer against 12 members of Congress with poor environmental records and ousted seven of them. According to Adam Rome, colleges and universities held 1,500 Earth Day events on 4/22/70, while another 12,000 to 13,000 events were held, some at K-12 schools and others independent of schools. See also Adam Rome, The Genius of Earth Day (2014 Hill and Wang).
Originally Earth Day was called the Environmental Teach-In. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D, Wisc) got the idea for it when he attended Teach-Ins about the Vietnam War. He believed that the public “was solidly behind a bold political agenda on environmental problems” and that a national teach-in on the environment would send a strong message to Washington. See https://nelsonearthday.net.
First Earth Day, Philadelphia (from The Smithsonian Magazine, “How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day,” 4/22/19).
Adam Rome quote Earth Day 1970: Charlotte Hsu, University of Buffalo Now, “As Earth Day turns 50, its origins provide lessons for today’s climate activists,” January 31, 2020.
“Lost its revolutionary fervor”: Sophie Yeo, “How the largest…,” BBC, op.cit..
Earth Day “is not nearly as much about collective action”: Yeo, BBC, ibid, quoting Adam Rome
NOTES TO: PROLOGUE
Farallons mice: The non-native mice are descendants of escapees from ships in the 1800s and early 1900s and are a serious problem. One island, Southeast Farallon, which is about the size of two football fields, is inhabited by 50,000 mice. See “Little Rodent, Big Appetite: Researchers identify the dietary impacts of invasive mice on the Farallon Islands,” Sept. 22, 2022, Science X newsletter, Phys.org; by Michael J. Polito, Bret Robinson, Pete Warzybok, and Russell W. Bradley, Louisiana State University
The mice have devastated plants, draw predators who attack nesting birds, eat bird eggs, and are endangering a salamander species and type of cricket found nowhere else. A plan by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to eradicate the mice with a one-time helicopter drop of rodenticide was endorsed by both the Audubon Society and the California Coastal Commission, along with many other environmental groups, while opposed by others. As of this writing, the plan has not been implemented.
Farallons sharks: Lizzie Stark, Egg: A Dozen Ovatures, “How a War Over Eggs Marked the Early History of San Francisco,” attributing the unusual number of great whites lurking at the Farallons to the high seal population. (In the mid-1800s Russian fur companies nearly wiped out the seal and sea otter populations; five species of pinnipeds now breed at the Farallons, but otters are rarer.)
The Farallons, by J. W. Boddam-Whetham, “Western Wanderings” (1874)
Farallons shipwrecks: The Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary estimates as many as 400 ship and aircraft wrecks. Farallones.noaa.gov. Sailors nicknamed the Farallons “the Devil’s Teeth.”
Farallons egg war: During the Gold Rush eggs were in short supply, so some men took to sailing to the Farallons where they collected murre eggs and sold them at high prices. Seabird colonies were decimated as egg hunters took over half a million eggs every month. Fierce competition led to violent clashes that became known as the Egg War and two men were killed, resulting in private companies being prohibited on the Farallons. But the common murre had been nearly wiped out there. The population slowly rebounded and by 1969 approximately 6,000 murres nested on the Farallons. With the end of nuclear waste dumping in 1970 and establishment of the Farallon Island Wilderness in 1974, the common murre population rose to 160,000. But now the seabirds are again facing threat, this time from mice.
Pile of murre eggs, probably in the 1860s. (California Academy of Sciences)
Jessica Gingrich, “When California Went to War Over Eggs,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 15, 2019; and Lizzie Stark, “How a war over eggs marked the early history of San Francisco,” at Literary Hub, Mar, 29, 2023, an excerpt from her book Egg: A Dozen Ovatures.
Farallons radioactive waste: see Farallon Island Nuclear Waste Dump, The Center for Land Use Interpretation (clui.org) “For 30 years, a 365 square mile area around the Farallon Islands served as the nation’s primary nuclear waste dumping ground.” 47,500 barrels of radioactive debris from nuclear labs, ships irradiated in the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb tests, and much undocumented material were dumped between 1946 and 1971.
NOTES TO: THE COLLISION
Dead bird covered by oil, Santa Barbara, February 1969 (Vernon Merritt III/The LIFE Picture collection/Getty Images)
Santa Barbara oil spill: On January 28, 1969, an underwater oil well six miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, California blew out. Union Oil had been given a waiver on the amount of protective steel casing on the well, and the public hadn’t been allowed to weigh in on the matter. On the 14th day of drilling, pressure caused natural gas and oil to spew at the rate of 9,000 gallons per hour. Three million gallons of oil flowed into the ocean, spreading for 35 miles before the well could be capped on February 7th and even then, oil continued to leak for the next few months. At least 9,000 birds were killed, as were unknown numbers of mammals and sea life. It was the worst spill in US history at that time, and is ranked as the third-worst now. Lila Thulin, “How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day,” Smithsonian Magazine, Apr. 22, 2019.
Another incident that spurred the environmental movement was when the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in July 1969. The headquarters of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil had been in Cleveland; many of its Ohio refineries dumped “unusable portions of refined crude oil − one of which was gasoline − into nearby creeks and rivers. Rockefeller himself would report that ‘hundreds of thousands of barrels of it floated down the creeks and rivers, and the ground was saturated with it, in the constant effort to get rid of it.’” (Jack Doyle, “Burn On, Big River – Cuyahoga River Fires,” at PopHistoryDig.com, May 12, 2014.) According to Cleveland Historical, there are no known photographs of the Cuyahoga burning in 1969, only of some of the dozen other times it caught fire, including 1948 and 1952.
Zero-visibility conditions: George Murphy, “The Big Oil Spill Spreads − Ocean Beaches Are Hit,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 20, 1971, p.1
Local airports closed: “Fog halts Bay Area air travel,” Oakland Tribune, Jan. 18, 1971; “Fog blankets Bay Area Airports,” SF Chronicle, Jan.19, 1971, p.18.
Five millions gallons of crude in Arizona: Susan McCarthy, “Bird Rescue in the 1971 Tanker Spill,” Outsidelands.org, January 2014. There are 42 gallons per barrel of oil. The Arizona carried 115,000 barrels and the Oregon 106,000. Each tanker weighed 17,000 tons (Dale Champion, “Captain Says Radar ‘Lost’ Other Tanker,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 26, 1971, p.1). ). Lt. MacDonald of the Coast Guard told Congress that the collision, “as near as we can tell,” occurred 3/10 of a mile west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Pg. 183, Hearings before a Special Subcommittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, 92nd Congress, 1st Session, On the tanker collision of January 18, 1971 in San Francisco Bay between the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard and the effects of the resulting massive oil spill.” February 8, 9, 1971, Serial #92-3. Chairman, John D. Dingell (D, Mich). [Hereafter cited as “Hearing.”]
Another witness testified that the tankers were running at “almost top speed” despite the heavy fog. Leo E. Laurence, KSAN Reporter, Hearing, 391-392.
Four millions gallons of bunker oil: “Tanker collision dumps a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay,” NY Times, January 19, 1971, p.74
US Coast Guard testing novel radar system: The Harbor Advisory Radar Project, first tried out in San Francisco Bay. Duffy Jennings, “Radar Saw Ships Converge,” SF Chronicle, January 29, 1971; and see “After 30 years, tankers safer but spills still a threat,” reprint of an Associated Press article in The Berkeley Daily Planet, Jan. 19, 2001
Aerial view of the Oregon leaking bunker oil into the Bay. (IBRRC photo)
Frantic calls: John Hart, “Bay Oil Spills: Never Again, and Again,” SF Estuary Magazine, March 2021. Lt. MacDonald said that the Coast Guard was in frequent contact with the Arizona but couldn’t reach the Oregon; and that the Arizona also tried unsuccessfully to contact the Oregon. Hearing, pp. 184-186.
Arizona rammed its bow 40 feet: “Tanker collision dumps…,” NY Times, Jan. 19, 1971, op.cit.
Six of 26 storage compartments: Joel Reese, “The oil spill that changed West Marin politics,” Point Reyes Light, January 12, 2003; Sandra Blakeslee, “Vast Oil Spill Killing Birds Along San Francisco Bay,” NY Times, Jan. 20, 1971, p.37.
One step removed from crude: Norm Hammon and John Studley, “Huge oil spill spreading to Stinson, Southern Bay,” Oakland Tribune, January 19, 1971, p.1.
“Pitch black and thick as molasses”: Maria Gallucci, “At Last, the Shipping Industry Begins Cleaning Up Its Dirty Fuels,” Yale Environment 360, June 18, 2018
Seals slipped off: Sandra Blakeslee, “Vast Oil Spill…,” NY Times, Jan. 20, 1971, op.cit..
Rocks and piers coated: George Murphy, “Big Oily Mess in the Bay After 2 Tankers Collide,” San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 1971, p.1.
Tankers stuck together and drifted into bay, ran against Angel Island: David Napier, “Ships Collide in Bay − Massive Oil Spill,” Oakland Tribune 1/18/71, p.1; at 9AM the ships were separated. The Arizona “proceeded under her own steam to Point Orient, in Richmond” while the Oregon remained anchored just west of Angel Island, with a boom around it to catch any more escaping oil. (George Murphy, “Big Oily Mess…”, SF Chronicle, 1/19/71, ibid.
Oregon was still leaking: T. J. Conomos, “Movement of spilled oil as predicted by estuarine nontidal drift,” Limnology and Oceanography, March 1975 (Vol. 20, No.2), at pg.165. The tankers were locked together for 7-1/2 hours: Dale Champion, “Captain Says Radar ‘Lost’ Other Tanker,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 26, 1971, p.1. See also testimony of Admiral Whalen, Hearing, p.14; the two vessels, locked together, anchored 1100 yards south of Angel Island. The Arizona was allowed to separate after it was determined it wasn’t leaking and proceeded, under escort, to the Richmond Terminal at 5:54PM.
According to the NOAA report, “the separation of the two vessels at 0900 [on January 18] resulted in an increased rate of spillage from the Oregon Standard. Concentrated efforts were directed at recovering oil still within the vessel’s ruptured tanks.” (NOAA/HMRAD Oil Spill Case History, edited on Sept. 19, 1992) Apparently, then, those efforts took all day (from 9AM to 5:54PM).
“Much of the oil…drift seaward”: Conomos, Limnology and Oceanography, op.cit., p.159.
Oil reached Sausalito…Fisherman’s Wharf: “Tanker Collision Dumps…” NY Times, Jan 19, 1971, op.cit.; George Murphy, “Big Oily Mess…” SF Chronicle, Jan 19, 1971, op.cit.. The Bay Model in Sausalito ran tests to determine where the oil would go. And see John Hart, “Bay Oil Spills: Never Again, and Again,” San Francisco Estuary Magazine, March 2021
By 6AM, oil on beaches: McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…,” outside lands.org, op.cit..
Slick headed toward Bolinas and Point Reyes: Conomos, Limnology and Oceanography, op.cit., at pp.165-66
NOTES TO: BOLINAS AND POINT REYES
Point Reyes: Point Reyes National Seashore had been authorized by President Kennedy on September 13, 1962 after decades of urging by local preservationists; the congressional bill authorized the purchase of 53,000 acres and provided for retention of ranches that had been there for generations. But by 1966 only half the acreage had been acquired. Nearly half a million people, organized by Save Our Seashore, wrote the White House requesting the park funding. On April 3, 1970 the additional money was appropriated and the rest of the 53,000 acres acquired. This was, of course, the same month as the first Earth Day.
Point Reyes National Seashore was established on October 20, 1972. In October 1976 the Point Reyes Wilderness was established, adding 33,000 acres of roadless wilderness to PRNS.
For a detailed history, see “Managing a Land in Motion: An Administrative History of Point Reyes National Seashore,” prepared for the National Park Service by Paul Sadin, October 2007; also see, the 2012 documentary “Rebels with a Cause” https://rebelsdocumentary.org
Bolinas Lagoon passageway: Bolinas Lagoon Watershed Study, Input Sediment Budget, prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc., for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, November 2001.
Bolinas population: Bolinas is an unincorporated community. The 1970 California census lists only incorporated municipalities and unincorporated towns with populations of over 1,000. Bolinas was not listed. According to Marguerite Kirk Harris, Bolinas had 699 people in 1970, and in 1976 the population was 1,312. (Harris, “Radical Environment Protectionism in a Small Community: a study of the Bolinas Water Moratorium,” Thesis for Master of Arts in History, Montana State University (August 1977).)
The 2000 census lists 1,246 residents.
DEQ map of the lagoon.
Bohemian enclave: In 1971, City Lights published an anthology of Bolinas poetry, On the Mesa. On the night of January 17th the Bolinas Community Center had the first performance of The Poets Orchestra.
Bolinas Lagoon “one of the last untouched…on California coast”: Jim Brewer, “How They Defended the Lagoon at Bolinas,” SF Chronicle, Jan 20, 1971, p.2
Seal “haul out”: the term for when seals climb onto land, rocks, or piers to rest.
NOTES TO: SAVING BOLINAS LAGOON
KSAN: This was still a time when FM stations were considered “underground,” with few if any commercials, free style selection of music, and far more honest, in-depth reporting than other radio stations. One of KSAN’s announcers, Scoop Nisker, closed his daily reports by saying “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” During the days after the oil spill, KSAN became a critically important community reference center.
D’Onofrio account: from Joel Reese, “The oil spill that changed…,” Pt. Reyes Light, op.cit.; and Kevin Opstedal, “Dreaming As One: Poetry, Poets and Community in Bolinas, California, 1967-1980,” Chapter 5.
Comment on “the freaks of Bolinas”: Many of us in the counterculture preferred to call ourselves “freaks,” or sometimes “heads,” disdaining the word “hippie” which was used mostly by the media and straight society. Note, for instance, that one of our favorite underground comics was Gilbert Shelton’s “The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.” Not until decades later did “hippie” seem less of a pejorative.
“Young people honed by 1960s activism”: Will Houston, “Marin witnesses recall massive oil spill of 50 years ago,” Marin Independent Journal, Jan 18, 2021; Reese, “The oil spill that changed….”, Pt. Reyes Light, op.cit..
Toby’s Feed Barn and local horse owners: Houston, “Marin witnesses recall….” Marin I-J, ibid.
Small flotilla of boats: Reese, “The Oil Spill That Changed…” Pt Reyes Light, op.cit.
“If it had been stormy”: Reese, “The Oil Spill That Changed….” Pt Reyes Light, op.cit.
Clerin Zumnwaldt: Jim Brewer, “How they defended…” SF Chronicle 1/20/71, op.cit..
Tide broke up barriers: Opstedal, Chapter 5, “Dreaming As One….”, op.cit.
Captain Spatula and other support: Joel Reese, “The Oil Spill That Changed…,” Pt. Reyes Light, op.cit. Randy Fontan was known in Bolinas as Captain Spatula. See also San Francisco Good Times, Jan 29, 1971: “They were joined by many others, freaks from around Marin and Berkeley and a whole contingent from Wheeler Ranch up in Sonoma.”
Pacific Telephone’s ham radio units: George Murphy, “Spill Inside Bay Mostly Contained,” SF Chronicle, Jan 21, 1971, p.1
Traffic coordination: Scott Thurber, “Busy Roads to Bolinas, Stinson,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 22, 1971, p.2
Send the bill to Standard Oil: Reese, “The Oil Spill That Changed…” Pt. Reyes Light, op.cit..
Standard Oil had been broken into regional companies after the Anti-Trust Act was passed in 1890, but I may omit “of California” from the company name for brevity’s sake; also, we Californians always referred to the company simply as Standard Oil.
John Armstrong, Bolinas residents, and Standard Oil crew: Opstedal, Dreaming as One, Chapter 5, op.cit..
Standard Oil supervisor offered help to locals: Reese, “The oil spill that changed…” Pt Reyes Light, op.cit., and Opstedal, Dreaming, chapter 5, op.cit.
System of booms built: “A Standoff at Bolinas,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 21, 1971, p.2; Peter T. White, “Barehanded Battle to Cleanse the Bay,” National Geographic Vol 139, No. 6, June 1971 at pp. 873-875 (hereafter cited as NatGeo).
Lagoon saved but “another tide…could change its delicate balance”: George Murphy, “Spill Inside Bay…,” SF Chronicle, Jan 21, 1971, op.cit..
Shores and beaches continued to be fouled: “Oil Problem Areas Off Marin Coast,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 25, 1971; and see Conomos, Limnology and Oceanography, March 1975, op.cit., at p.167
Stinson Beach “covered with thick oil…”: Murphy, “Spill Inside Bay…” SF Chronicle, Jan. 21, op.cit..
Duxbury Reef unreachable: “Oil Problem Areas Off Marin Coast,” SF Chronicle, 1/25/71, op.cit..
Bolinas Fire Chief: “Oil Problem Areas Off Marin Coast,” SF Chronicle 1/25/71, op.cit..
NOTES TO: COLLECTIVE WORK TO CLEAN THE BAY
Ultimate contamination area: Times and specifics are from T. J. Conomos, “Movement of spilled oil as predicted by estuarine nontidal drift,” U.S. Geological Survey, in Limnology and Oceanography, March 1975, Volume 20, Number 2. The bay system includes San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Richardson Bay, Suisun Bay, and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. See also John Smail, David G. Ainley and Helen Strong, “Notes on Birds Killed in the 1971 San Francisco Oil Spill,” California Birds (Vol. 3, No. 2, 1972), p.25
Estimate 40,000 citizens involved: Robert C. Daeger, who was an organizer of the bird cleanup; member of Sierra Club, Point Reyes Observatory, and a co-director of the Marin Audubon Society, at Hearing, 295
Volunteers at Ocean Beach, San Francisco (Photo: Dennis O’Rorke, Oakland Tribune)
National Geographic quote on “phenomenal response of the public”: White, “Barehanded Battle…,” Nat Geo, op.cit., p.867.
“Dunkirk of ecology”: “Battle of Bolinas Bay Won by the Good Guys,” Oakland Tribune January 22, 1971
“Mobilizing of volunteers…”: Statement of Robert C. Daeger, op.cit., Hearing, 295
Description of volunteers: Nat Geo, op.cit., p. 873
Hard hat’s wife: McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…,” outsidelands.org, op.cit..
Standard Oil supervisor quote (“…couldn’t get them straw fast enough”): Nat Geo, op.cit., p.875
U.S. Army provided straw and lamps: Nat. Geo., op.cit., 870, 873
Disposal of oiled hay: Nat Geo, op.cit., at 870.
Schools closed; students and teachers: Murphy, “The big oil spill spreads…”, SF Chronicle 1/20/71; McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…,” outsidelands.org, op.cit..
Baker Beach: McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…,” outsidelands.org, op.cit..
One scuba diver reported that even in parts of the water with only a light sheen on the surface, he found globules underneath the surface. Later, when he washed his diving suit, it fell apart; oil had dissolved the stitching. Nat Geo, p. 871.
Project One: “Oil toil,” San Francisco Good Times, January 29, 1971. The 84,000 square foot warehouse was South of Market (10th and Howard) when that was still a fairly gritty area. Inspired in part by Buckminster Fuller and sometimes called a “technological commune,” Project One was an early site for computer freaks, and included a number of artists, filmmakers, and craftspeople. It housed a school, day care facility, music rehearsal studios, photography collective, and more.
PT&T and SFPD: Raymond R. Balter, Hearing, 425-429. The ticketing of cars belonging to longhairs (mostly impoverished) who were dealing with the emergency, in an area with no housing and no parking crunch, was another form of harassment.
Standard Oil tally of labor and equipment: Philip Hager, “Volunteers Join Effort to Clean Up Spilled Oil,” Los Angeles Times, 1/20/71, p.3; and see Murphy, “Spill Inside Bay Mostly Contained,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 21, 1971.
Bales of hay and pitchforks: Nat’l Geo, 873. See also testimony of Commander Dickman, US Coast Guard, Hearing, at 197: On the 18th, Standard had 350 paid employees actively engaged in clean up and estimated there were 450 volunteers. See page 198 et seq for chart of estimates of numbers of Standard employees and contractors and volunteers by date and type of work. The estimates of volunteers are from Standard and the source of those estimates is not provided.
Lawrence Ford, president of Chevron Shipping, told Congress that 1,000 Standard Oil employees and contractors worked on the cleanup, mostly local people. He did not know how many volunteers there were and cited a press estimate of two to three thousand at the peak. (Hearing, 243.)
Standard Oil’s obligations to pay for clean up: The Chronicle on January 20, 1971 noted that because Standard was paying for the cleanup, it would not be “fined $100 a gross ton for each ton of the offending vessel.” Murphy, “The Big Oil Spill Spreads…,” op.cit..)
In the Congressional hearing, one Standard executive estimated that Standard spend over $4 million on clean up; Rep. McCloskey pointed out that $4 million was the amount required by the law passed the previous year. (Hearing, 236)
Standard said it was paying Alcatraz occupiers: Norm Hannon, “Victory Over Slick Is Won But Mop-Up Work Remains,” Oakland Tribune, Jan 24, 1971, p.20.
Federal government begins planning eviction of Indians from Alcatraz: Dr. Troy Johnson, Cal State Long Beach, “We Hold the Rock,” on US National Park Service site, page on Alcatraz. The Indians occupied Alcatraz for 19 months and 9 days. The last 15 people were evicted on June 11, 1971.
Double boom: Jim Brewer, “Residents Struggle to Save Lagoon,” SF Chronicle, January 26, 1971, p.2
Standard withdrew support; Brubaker explanation; Armstrong statement to reporters: Brewer, “Residents Struggle…,” SF Chronicle 1/26/71, ibid. Article described Brubaker as a Standard Oil clean-up official.
Young people lifted boom into place: Brewer, “Residents struggle…” SF Chronicle 1/26/71, ibid; and Nat Geo, June 1971, p. 875
Marin County Parks Department director: Brewer, “Residents Struggle…,” SF Chronicle 1/26/71, op.cit.. Joske added that “he will recommend [to Marin Supervisors] that some kind of long range protection for the lagoon be provided.”
Residents won’t call on Standard anymore: Brewer, “Residents Struggle…,” SF Chronicle, 1/26/71, op.cit..
NOTES TO: BIRD RESCUE EFFORTS
Information centers: McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…,” Outsidelands.org, op.cit.; SF Good Times, 1/29/71; Murphy, “Big Oil spill spreads…,” SF Chronicle, Jan. 20, 1971, op.cit..
Richmond Bird Center: Balter report, Hearing, at 439-441
Bird rescue stations set up on Jan 18: SF Chronicle of 1/19/71 “A Way to Help Those Oily Birds”; article went on to say that Friends of the Earth announced on Jan 18 that it had established a station in Richmond to clean birds, advising people to bring mineral or baby oil, sawdust or corn meal, rags, heating lamps, and washtubs. On January 20 the Chronicle reported that “receiving stations…sprang up overnight around the bay.” (Scott Thurber, “Thousands Join the Rescue,” SF Chronicle, 1/20/71 pg.1
Lion house: Susan McCarthy, “Bird Rescue in the 1971 Oil Spill,” outsidelands.org, op.cit..
Centers in Tiburon, Richmond, and around the bay: “Bird Rescue in the 1971 Oil spill,” at outsidelands.org, op.cit..
Local newspapers ran information: See, for instance, SF Chronicle, 1/19/71, “A way to help those oily birds” and the listing of treatment centers in Jan 20, 1971 issue; and see Oakland Tribune, 1/19/71. The “undergrounds” papers came out weekly and listed the information in each issue.
Donations from corporations and others: Susan McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…..” in outsidelands.org, op.cit..
No proven protocols for oiled birds: https://birdrescue.info/50-years-after-bay-area-oil-spill-international-bird-rescue-leading-the-way/ and see “Bird Rescue in the 1971 Oil Spill” outsidelands.org, op.cit..
Treatment of birds, Birds that survived initial trauma: Willard Greenwald, Regional Manager, Calif Dept of Fish & Game, Hearing, 401-404
Higher survival rate at Richmond: Raymond C. Balter, Terrain magazine, Nov. 1994 (at FoundSF, “The Early Bird Gets the Oily Bird.” See also Report of Raymond Balter, at Hearing, 440-441.
Volunteers’ hours and numbers: Sandra Blakeslee, “Birds are saved from oil spills,” NY Times, Feb. 28, 1971
“Most were the sturdy surly sea ducks….” : “Susan McCarthy, “Bird Rescue…”, outsidelands.org; and see testimony of John Smail, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, that the Western grebe species was affected the worst; at least 2,000 were oiled. (Hearing, 291)
Naviaux estimate of 5%: Sandra Blakeslee, “Technique developed to save birds caught in big oil spills,” NY Times, Jan. 1, 1872
1,100 bird carcasses: Smail, Ainley and Strong, “Notes on birds killed in the 1971 San Francisco oil spill,” California Birds Vol 3, No. 2, 1972
Study estimates 20,000 birds died: Smail, Ainley and Strong, “Notes on birds killed in the 1971 San Francisco oil spill,” California Birds, op. cit, at 26, noting that in other spills and bird disasters, between one-eighth and one-quarter of birds are found, dead or alive; the rest wash out to sea, or sink.
NOTES TO: OTHER EFFECTS
Aerial surveillance results: George Murphy, “Oil Slick Looks ‘Twice As Big’,” SF Chronicle 1/23/71
Standard announced capture of 336,000 gallons: George Murphy, “Oil Cleanup Is Progressing−The Tide Helps,” SF Chronicle, 1/22/71, p.2
Location of missing 500,000 gallons; Coast Guard report; Fish & Game spokesman: Larry Dum, “Lost Oil ‘Found’ Off Gate,” Sunday SF Examiner-Chronicle, 1/24/71
Dungeness crab population collapse: CDFW CFIS, California commercial Dungeness Crab Catch by Season and Area, 1915-16 – 2017/18, which lists the 1971-2 catch to be 73% and 1972-3 catch to be 77% of the 1969-70 catch. See also California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Invertebrate Management Project, “California’s Dungeness Crab Fishery, Report of October 2009.”
Also severely affected: David Perlman, “Biologist leads battle for sea life on Duxbury Reef,” SF Chronicle , Jan. 25, 1971, p.1
Bodega Marine Laboratory quote and affect on starfish: David Perlman, “Cautious hopes on oil damage,” SF Chronicle, 1/22/71
Mussel beds at Duxbury Reef: Dr. Gordon Chan, Sea Grant Program director, College of Marin, in Hearing, 465-6
Shore contamination: Dr. Eugene Coan of the Sierra Club, in testimony. Hearing, 251.
Dr. Gordon Chan quote: Hearing, 464-65
Government report on invertebrates: NOAA/HMRAD Oil Spill Case History, report on the Oregon Standard/Arizona Standard, San Francisco, California, Last Edit 9/19/92. Nels Johnson, see n78, “it took five years for tidal life to recover.”
On the weekend after the spill, biologist Gordon Chan and his students assessed the damage to sea life on Duxbury Reef. Chan was encouraged to find that anemones, sea urchins, and turban snails were seemingly unharmed, but no one knew what the effect would be on limpets, rock clams, mussels, or the sea life at the bottom of the food chain: phytoplankton, diatoms, and plants. David Perlman, “Biologist Leads Battle for Sea Life on Duxbury Reef,” SF Chronicle, 1/25/71, p.1
Seven million organisms killed: Reese, “The oil spill that changed…”, Point Reyes Light; Nels Johnson, “Marin’s biggest oil-dumping nightmare came in 1971,” Marin IJ, Nov. 9, 2007 [written two days after the Cosco Busan ran into the Bay Bridge and spilled over 50,000 gallons of used bunker fuel]
NOTES TO: PROTESTS
January 19 protest at Standard HQ in San Francisco: “Oil on Troubled Waters,” Time magazine, Feb 1, 1991, p.61; Berkeley Tribe, Vol II No. 27 Issue 79, January 22-29, 1971, p.2.
“Brief scuffle” “Vandals escaped”: “Vandals Strike in Oil Protest,” SF Chronicle 1/20/71, p.2
Berkeley Barb, Jan. 29, 1971
UC Berkeley demonstration; Linus Pauling: Murphy, “Oil Slick Looks ‘Twice as Big’,” SF Chronicle, Jan 23, 1971, p.2
January 23 protest: Norm Hannon, “Victory over slick…,” Oakland Tribune, 1/24/71, op.cit..
Earth Army calls for trial: Berkeley Tribe, 1/22/71
“The purpose of the demonstration”: “New Oil Damage Agency”, SF Chronicle, 1/26/71, p.2
1500 march to South Vietnamese embassy and poster: “Eat It!” Berkeley Barb, 1/29/71. At the South Vietnamese embassy, marchers were met by the SFPD Tac Squad. Some returned to Standard Oil and, en route, hurled rocks through the windows of Wells Fargo Bank and Western Union. Four people were arrested.
Standard Oil record profits: SF Good Times, Jan 29, 1971; Berkeley Barb, Jan 29, 1971, p.5. Standard Oil was found guilty at the people’s trial.
Formal hearing and Sierra Club denied participation: Jack Viets, “Formal Hearing on Oil Spill,” SF Chronicle, 1/21/71, p.1. The chief hearing officer, Capt. Joseph E. Gould, denied the Sierra Club’s request.
NOTES TO: AFTERMATH
Coast Guard filed negligence charges: “Coast Guard Alleges negligence By Skippers in Tanker Collision,” NY Times, 3/21/71
Coast Guard report: Marine Casualty Report, Collision involving the SS Arizona Standard and SS Oregon Standard at the entrance to San Francisco Bay on January 18, 1971, U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Board of Investigation Report and Commandant’s Action, Action by National Transportation Safety Board. Findings and recommendations at pp. 31 et seq.
Standard Oil indicted by US Attorney: “Standard Oil and Subsidiary Indicted for Coast Oil Spill,” NY Times, 10/28/71 p.36
Lawsuits for damages to property: “Big Lawsuits Hit Standard Oil Co.,” SF Chronicle 1/21/71
Judge Ira Brown ruling: “Spill Suits Against Oil Firm Dismissed,” Los Angeles Times, 12/21/71
Underground papers urged filing of claims: San Francisco Good Times, Jan 29, 1971, which included a form to fill out; Berkeley Barb, Feb. 5, 1971; Berkeley Tribe of Feb 5, 1971 which encouraged people to sue Standard Oil in Alameda County Small Claims Court.
NOTES TO: POLITICAL REACTIONS
Senator Edmund Muskie holding an oiled grebe, Jan. 25, 1971. Muskie, one of the first to sponsor environmental legislation, chaired the Senate Subcommittee on the Environment and was known on Capitol Hill as “Mr. Clean.” He told reporters that oil transportation should be covered by the same laws that applied to explosives. (SF Chronicle photo)
Congressional hearing: San Francisco Oil Spill: Hearings before a Special Subcommittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, 92nd Congress, 1st Session, On the tanker collision of January 18, 1971 in San Francisco Bay between the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard and the effects of the resulting massive oil spill.” February 8, 9, 1971, Serial #92-3. Chairman, John D. Dingell (D, Mich). [Herein cited as “Hearing.”]
Two laws had been proposed: Hearing, pp.1-2, statement by Congressman Dingell, citing HR 756 to require radio telephone devices on vessels navigating in U.S. waters, and HR867, the ports and waterways safety bill.
SF Bar Pilots urge law, and quote: “Law Urged to Put Pilots on All Ships,” SF Chronicle, 1/21/71.
National Marine Sanctuaries Act: William J. Chandler and Hannah Gillelan, “The History and Evolution of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act,” ELR News & Analysis (34 ELR 10505), Environmental Law Institute.
Bolinas Lagoon included in Sanctuary, oil drilling banned, and expansion: Greater Farallones Marine Sanctuary web site. See also Will Houston, “Marin witnesses recall massive oil spill of 50 years ago,” Marin Independent Journal, Jan 18, 2021. Note that both “Farallons” and “Farallones” are accepted spellings.
Note on an invasive species in Bolinas Lagoon: Green crabs, native to northern Europe, arrived in Bolinas Lagoon probably in the 1980s. They have invaded many other areas in the country but the highest density of green crabs on the west coast is in Seadrift Lagoon, the man-made pool created for residents that sits in the middle of of the spit between Stinson Beach and Bolinas. (See the DEQ map above.) Green crabs eat Dungeness crabs, oysters, clams and other shellfish as well as the flora needed by various species. In 2009 there were 100,000 green crabs in Bolinas Lagoon. At great effort, people removed thousands and brought the population down to 8,000. But a year later there were 300,000. The problem was that the trapped crabs had been mostly adults, which often eat their own young; without that population control, all the young green crabs grew into adulthood.
Unfortunately green crabs don’t have enough meat to make them a popular menu item. However, when killed and ground up, they make very good fertilizer.
Marine Mammal Protection Act: see fisheries.NOAA.gov.
Port & Waterways Safety Act of 1972 and Nixon quote: “Nixon Signs Tanker-Control Bill Aimed at Prevention of Oil Spills,” NY Times, July 11, 1972; see also “After 30 years, tankers safer but spills still a threat,” Associated Press in Berkeley Daily Planet Jan. 19, 2001.
Clean Water Act: Berkeley Daily Planet, 1/19/01, op.cit.; www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-timeline-of-environmental-movement/2988/
USSC ruling: Sackett vs. EPA, 598 U.S.___ (2023),
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22df/21-454_4g15.pdf
Response of Michael Regan: “Statement on Supreme Court Decision in Sackett v. EPA,” May 25, 2023, EPA Press Office, https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/statement-supreme-court-decision-sacket-v-epa
Endangered Species Act passed overwhelmingly: Union of Concerned Scientists, “The Endangered Endangered Species Act,” Published May 16, 2016, Updated Aug 19, 2019. "
291 species extinctions prevented: Brianna Randall, “The Endangered Species Act, 50 years of action,” National Wildlife, Fall 2023, pg. 26; and quoting Mike Leahy, senior director of wildlife policy for the National Wildlife Federation, “…most important…laws in our country.”
Coast Guard’s vessel traffic system: Berkeley Daily Planet, Jan. 19, 2001, op.cit.
Oil Pollution Act of 1990: NOAA, Office of Response and Restoration, “A Final Farewell to Oil Tankers with Single Hulls,” December 11, 2014. https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/final-farewell-oil-tankers-single-hulls.html
From NOAA.gov, M/V Cosco Busan
Cosco Busan: On November 7, 2007, at the start of the bird migration season, the Hong Kong container vessel rammed into a Bay Bridge tower. The ship did have a pilot, John Cota. He was taking prescription drugs that impaired his ability to use radar and navigation charts. Language barriers prevented adequate communication between Cota and the captain. Later investigations also found that the ship was traveling too fast in the fog and that Cota ignored safety violations.
Initially, the Coast Guard badly underestimated the amount of oil, announcing that only 140 gallons had spilled. But in fact over 53,000 gallons of used bunker fuel, a particularly vile oil, spilled into the bay. It spread widely and quickly; at least 50 beaches and shorelines were oiled. Nearly 7,000 birds were killed. Herring eggs were destroyed and up to 30% of the spawn were lost. Mussels and Dungeness crab were found to be contaminated and the fishing season was cancelled. Sea plants were destroyed, dooming the fish and animals that needed them to survive. The effects were being felt years later
Birds oiled in the Cosco Busan spill. (California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
In Marin County volunteers had already removed several tons of oil from Muir Beach when the National Park Service ordered them to stop. They did not. A ranger threatened one volunteer with a taser gun, arrested him, and forced him to lie face down on the oily beach for over an hour.
Around that time the government announced that people wanting to help could come to a certain site for training. Hundreds responded, most bearing rubber gloves, buckets, shovels, and the like, only to be told they would not be helping with the clean up but would instead hear an informational speech. The resulting uproar was so great that Governor Schwarznegger ordered that citizens be allowed to assist in the clean up. He later signed a law integrating citizens into official disaster response groups.
The effects of this relatively small spill were felt for years. But some benefits resulted. Better response systems were set up. The organization Baykeeper fought off installation of another oil storage facility in the northern east bay and stopped expansion of one of the existing refineries. An increase in barrel fees raised money to be set aside for spill responses. And “significant habitat improvements for birds, aquatic vegetation, fish and shellfish” were established.
Many of the new habitats were funded by fines and restitution paid by the company that operated the Cosco Busan. The company had been indicted for six felonies and two misdemeanors, and negotiated a deal to pay $44 million. The pilot, John Cota, went to prison for 10 months and lost his pilot license.
In 2000 a nonprofit group, Matter of Trust, had launched a program to collect human hair clippings from barbershops and salons, and turn them into mats to absorb spilled oil. Hair absorbs five to seven times its weight in oil. The mats were used extensively in the Cosco Busan spill and in the Deepwater Horizon disaster three years later.
For links to information and reports on this disaster, see https://wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRDA/cosco-busan
California Coastal Commission: see California Coastal Commission website history. As part of the progressive movement for direct democracy, in 1911 Californians gained the rights of initiative, referendum, and recall. Guaranteed by the state constitution, voters may themselves propose laws, throw out laws, or remove elected officials.
Audubon’s “Volunteer Canyon”: Audubon Canyon Ranch Bulletin, Fall 2012 (No. 51)
Point Reyes National Seashore officially established: Paul Sadin report for the National Park Service, “Managing a Land in Motion: An Administrative History of the Point Reyes National Seashore,” October 2007. Congress had created PRNS in 1962, with a nationwide push after “Island in Time” by Harold Gilliam was published by the Sierra Club. The money to complete purchase of the land wasn’t forthcoming until March 1970 after an aggressive campaign by citizens group Save Our Seashore. Various plans to develop the area had nearly been implemented over the years.
Brown pelican being cleaned after the 1971 spill. (International Bird Rescue)
NOTES TO: BIRD RESCUE
IBRRC incorporated in April 1971: International Bird Rescue, “Remembering the 1971 San Francisco Bay Oil Spill,” January 18, 2011, at birdrescue.org
IBR primary rescue group in the world: In 2010 the IBR had worked in over 200 spills in 11 states, 7 countries, and two US territories. The two new facilities were the 10,000 square foot one in Fairfield, northeast of San Francisco, and another in San Pedro near the Long Beach Harbor. (IBR history at www.ibrrc.org) See also Houston, “Marin witnesses recall….” Marin IJ, Jan. 18, 2021.
IBR work isn’t restricted to oil spills. For instance, in the late 1990s, when construction disturbed their breeding colony, great egrets established a new one in downtown Santa Rosa. Some of the chicks fall to the street. IBR volunteers place straw to cushion them, then take them to be raised and released. IBR “has successfully released more than 100 egrets and herons in a given year all from this one area.” (Jak Wonderly, “Big Birds on the Block,” Smithsonian Magazine Sept-Oct 2023.)
IBR data: Scott H. Newman, Mike H. Ziccardi, Alice B. Berkner, Jay Holcomb, Curt Clumpner, & Joanna A.K. Mazet, “A Historical account of oiled wildlife care in California,” Marine Ornithology, 31:59-64 (October 11, 2003)
IBR Capetown, Deepwater horizon: IBRCC.org, history, “A long history of saving oiled wildlife” retrieved 12/8/10 and “pioneers in oiled aquatic bird care,” retrieved 5/18/16
Bird cleaning and Dawn dish soap: One founder of the IBR has written a delightful account of discovering Dawn for cleaning birds. David C. Smith, “Bird Rescue Efforts Following the 1971 Oil Spill - How Dawn became detergent of choice,” https://birdrescue.info/285-2/
Feeding frenzy during the herring run in Richardson Bay near Belvedere, January 2013 (author’s photo)
NOTES TO: BOLINAS
Disaster changed the character of West Marin: Reese, “The oil spill that changed…” Point Reyes Light
Large scale developments planned for Stinson, Bolinas: Kevin Opstedal, “Dreaming As One, Poetry, Poets and Community in Bolinas, California, 1967-1980,” Chapter 5. Opstedal writes that the new BPUD came up with a new sewer plan for existing residents to replace the antiquated system that dumped treated sewage into the Lagoon. The new system uses sewer ponds, “a system that….[was] similar to a septic tank.” See also Reese, “The oil spill that changed West Marin politics” and Orville Schell, The Town That Saved Itself (Pantheon Books, 1976).
Bolinas residents threw out directors, drafted new plan: Reese, “The oil spill that changed…” Pt Reyes Light; and Opstedal, chapter 5. For a complete story of this and the subsequent events in Bolinas, see Orville Schell, The Town That Fought to Save Itself (Pantheon Book 1976). Schell himself was elected to the board. In his book he changes the name of the town to Briones.
See also Marguerite Kirk Harris, “Radical Environment Protectionism in a Small Community: a study of the Bolinas Water Moratorium,” Thesis for Master of Arts in History, Montana State University (August 1977)
New water hookups prohibited; frozen 40 years: Fred A. Bernstein, “One Town Stops Time By Turning Off the Water,” NY Times, October 9, 2005. There were 580 water hookups when the ordinance was passed and for the next four decades. The law was challenged in court in 1982; Bolinas won the case but spent over two million on legal fees.
“First town in America…”: Schell, The Town That Fought…, op.cit., at 11
2005 water meter auction: Bernstein, “One Town Stops Time…,” NY Times, 10/9/05, op.cit.; and Bernstein, “The price for building a home in this town: $300,000 for a water meter,” NY Times, April 13, 2010.
Average home price 2019: Ethan Varian, “Bolinas wanted to stay hidden − then came the internet,” Curbed San Francisco, Oct. 1, 2019.
West Marin group; one house per 60 acres: Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, 1972 newsletter.
MALT formation and facts: Marin Agricultural Land Trust website, malt.org, see “What’s an agricultural conservation easement?”
These easements are now used all over the country and have saved thousands of acres from development and thousands of small farms from going under. For just a few examples, in New York State’s Hudson Valley conservation easements have saved 328 small farms and preserved 86,000 acres of farmland. (Lukas Southard, “A real estate deal that helps small farmers,” Times-Union, May 25, 2021.) The Little Traverse Conservancy in Michigan reported in 2022 that in five Michigan counties, 318 conservation easements existed and 25,000 acres were protected in 242 land preserves. (https://landtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AnnualReport2022.pdf
Meanwhile the U.S. Department of Agriculture administers the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, created by the 2014 Farm Bill.
Prince Charles and the Duchess of Wales at the Point Reyes farmers market, Nov. 2005 (From the Marin Independent Journal)
Visit from the future King: In 2005, Prince Charles, an ardent advocate of sustainable agriculture, visited West Marin to meet with organic farmers. Charles, a co-founder of one of England’s largest organic food companies, stopped in at Toby’s Feed Barn, an organic food purveyor. Besides a tour of the Farmers’ Market at Point Reyes Station, Charles and the Duchess of Wales visited an organic farm in Bolinas. Charles reportedly had learned of West Marin at a sustainable food conference in Italy the year before.
Lagunitas and Point Reyes Station: Reese, “The Oil Spill That Changed…,” Pt. Reyes Light, op.cit..
Sixteen million empty houses in U.S.: United Way of the National Capital Area, Mar, 28, 2023; and “16 Million Homes Vacant in U.S.,” realtor.com, citing research from LendingTree (Mar 2, 2022).
NOTES FROM: WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
May 1969, May 1971 poll and October 1971 poll re: paying for clean up: John C. Whitaker, “Earth Day Recollections: What It Was Like When the Movement Took Off,” EPA Journal, July/Aug. 1988.
Senator Nelson’s vision: Senator Nelson wrote in 2002 that he hadn’t thought “that a one-day demonstration would convince people of the need to protect the environment. I envisioned a continuing national drive to clean up our environment and set new priorities for a livable America. Earth Day was to be the catalyst.” (from Kate Yoder, “Love it or hate it, Earth Day’s just not what it used to be. What happened?” at ethicalhour.com. Emphasis added.)
Adam Rome, Earth Day as a trade show: Sophie Yeo, “How the Largest…,” op.cit.
Quote on participation: Paul Lambert, KSAN volunteer, at Hearing, 304
Movement was anti-capitalist: That is not to say that there was unanimity on the alternatives.
SOURCES
Government reports and hearings:
Hearings before a Special Subcommittee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, House of Representatives, 92nd Congress, 1st Session, On the tanker collision of January 18, 1971 in San Francisco Bay between the Arizona Standard and the Oregon Standard and the effects of the resulting massive oil spill.” February 8, 9, 1971, Serial #92-3. Chairman, John D. Dingell (D, Mich).
Bolinas Lagoon Watershed Study, Input Sediment Budget, prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc., for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, November 2001
Dr. Troy Johnson, Cal State Long Beach, “We Hold the Rock,” on US National Park Service, at https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/we-hold-the-rock.htm
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Commercial Fisheries Information System, California Commercial Dungeness Crab Catch by Season and Area, 1915-16 – 2017/18
California Department of Fish and Game, Marine Invertebrate Management Project, “California’s Dungeness Crab Fishery, Report of October 2009
Environmental Protection Agency: “Statement on Supreme Court Decision in Sackett v. EPA,” May 25, 2023, EPA Press Office , https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/statement-supreme-court-decision-sacket-v-epa
“Managing a Land in Motion: An Administrative History of Point Reyes National Seashore,” prepared for the National Park Service by Paul Sadin, October 2007.
National Transportation Safety Board: Marine Casualty Report, Collision involving the SS Arizona Standard and SS Oregon Standard at the entrance to San Francisco Bay on January 18, 1971, U.S. Coast Guard, Marine Board of Investigation Report and Commandant’s Action, Action by National Transportation Safety Board. Report is available at https://www.dco.uscg.mil/Portals/9/DCO%20Documents/5p/CG-5PC/INV/docs/boards/arizonoregon.pdf
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/HMRAD Oil Spill Case History, Report on the Oregon Standard/Arizona Standard, San Francisco, California, Last Edit 9/19/92. (Report can be obtained at https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/1671
NOAA, Office of Response and Restoration, “A Final Farewell to Oil Tankers with Single Hulls,” December 11, 2014, retrieved March 11, 2023. https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/final-farewell-oil-tankers-single-hulls.html
Sackett vs. EPA, Certiorari to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 21-454. Argued October 3, 2022, decided May 25, 2023. 598 U.S.__ Opinions can be read at https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-454
Newspapers and periodicals (alphabetical by name of publication)
Berkeley Barb, Issues of Jan. 22-28, 1971, Jan.29-Feb.4, 1971, and Feb.5-11, 1971
Berkeley Tribe, Vol II No. 27 Issue 79, January 22-29, 1971; Vol. III, No.3, Issue 81, Feb.5-12, 1971; Vol.III, No.4, Issue 82, Feb.12-19, 1971
“After 30 years, tankers safer but spills still a threat,” reprint of an Associated Press article in The Berkeley Daily Planet, Jan. 19, 2001
John Smail, David G. Ainley and Helen Strong, “Notes on Birds Killed in the 1971 San Francisco Oil Spill,” California Birds (Vol. 3, No. 2, 1972), p.25
John C. Whitaker, “Earth Day Recollections: What It Was Like When the Movement Took Off,” EPA Journal, July/Aug. 1988.
Lizzie Stark, “How a war over eggs marked the early history of San Francisco,” at Literary Hub, Mar. 29, 2023 (excerpted from her book Egg: A Dozen Ovatures).
Philip Hager, “Volunteers Join Effort to Clean Up Spilled Oil,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 20, 1971, p.3
“Spill Suits Against Oil Firm Dismissed,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 21, 1971
Nels Johnson, “Marin’s biggest oil-dumping nightmare came in 1971,” Marin Independent Journal, Nov. 9, 2007
Will Houston, “Marin witnesses recall massive oil spill of 50 years ago,” Marin Independent Journal, Jan 18, 2021
Scott H. Newman, Mike H. Ziccardi, Alice B. Berkner, Jay Holcomb, Curt Clumpner, & Joanna A.K. Mazet, “A Historical account of oiled wildlife care in California,” Marine Ornithology, 31:59-64 (October 11, 2003)
Peter T. White, “Barehanded Battle to Cleanse the Bay,” National Geographic Vol 139, No. 6, June 1971, photos by Jonathan S. Blair
Brianna Randall, “The Endangered Species Act, 50 years of action,” National Wildlife, Fall 2023
New York Times (listed chronologically):
“Tanker collision dumps a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay,” Jan. 19, 1971, p.74
Sandra Blakeslee, “Vast Oil Spill Killing Birds Along San Francisco Bay,” Jan. 20, 1971, p.37
“Women Fight Slick to Save Birds,” Jan. 21, 1971, p.69
“Birds, Saved From Oil, Dying at Zoo on Coast,” Jan. 27, 1971, p.11
“Coast Guard Alleges Negligence By Skippers in Tanker Collision,” March 21, 1971, p.66
“Only 305 Birds Survive San Francisco Oil Spill,” May 16, 1971, p.35
“Standard Oil and Subsidiary Indicted for Coast Oil Spill,” Oct. 28, 1971, p.36
Sandra Blakeslee, “Technique developed to save birds caught in big oil spills,” Jan. 1, 1972
“Nixon Signs Tanker-Control Bill Aimed at Prevention of Oil Spills,” July 11, 1972
Fred A. Bernstein, “One Town Stops Time By Turning Off the Water,” Oct. 9, 2005.
Fred A. Bernstein, “The price for building a home in this town: $300,000 for a water meter,” April 13, 2010.
Oakland Tribune (listed chronologically):
“Fog halts Bay Area air travel,” Jan. 18, 1971
David Napier, “Ships Collide in Bay − Massive Oil Spill,” Jan. 18, 1971, p.1
Norm Hammon and John Studley, “Huge oil spill spreading to Stinson, Southern Bay,” Jan. 19, 1971, p.1
“Battle of Bolinas Bay Won by the Good Guys,” Jan. 22, 1971
Norm Hannon, “Victory Over Slick Is Won But Mop-Up Work Remains,” Jan. 24, 1971, p.20
Joel Reese, “The oil spill that changed West Marin politics,” Point Reyes Light, Jan. 12, 2003
San Francisco Chronicle (listed chronologically):
George Murphy, “Big Oily Mess in the Bay After 2 Tankers Collide,” Jan. 19, 1971, p.1
“Fog blankets Bay Area Airports,” Jan.19, 1971, p.18
Jim Brewer, “How They Defended the Lagoon at Bolinas,” Jan. 20, 1971, p.2
George Murphy, “The Big Oil Spill Spreads−Ocean Beaches Are Hit,” Jan. 20, 1971, p.1
“Vandals Strike in Oil Protest,” Jan. 20, 1971, p.2
George Murphy, “Spill Inside Bay Mostly Contained,” Jan 21, 1971, p.1
“A Standoff at Bolinas,” Jan. 21, 1971, p.2
Jack Viets, “Formal Hearing on Oil Spill,” Jan. 21, 1971, p.1
“Law Urged to Put Pilots on All Ships,” Jan. 21, 1971, p.2
“Big Lawsuits Hit Standard Oil Co.,” Jan. 21, 1971, p.2
Scott Thurber, “Busy Roads to Bolinas, Stinson,” Jan. 22, 1971, p.2
David Perlman, “Cautious hopes on oil damage,” Jan. 22, 1971, p.1
George Murphy, “Oil Cleanup Is Progressing−The Tide Helps,” Jan. 22, 1971, p.2
George Murphy, “Oil Slick Looks ‘Twice As Big’,” Jan. 23, 1971, p.2
Larry Dum, “Lost Oil ‘Found’ Off Gate,” Sunday SF Examiner-Chronicle, 1/24/71, p.1
“Oil Problem Areas Off Marin Coast,” Jan. 25, 1971, p.1
Jim Brewer, “Residents Struggle to Save Lagoon,” Jan. 26, 1971, p.2
Dale Champion, “Captain Says Radar ‘Lost’ Other Tanker,” Jan. 26, 1971, p.1
“New Oil Damage Agency”, Jan. 26, 1971, p.2
Duffy Jennings, “Radar Saw Ships Converge,” Jan. 29, 1971
David Perlman, “Biologist leads battle for sea life on Duxbury Reef,” Jan. 25, 1971, p.1
John Hart, “Bay Oil Spills: Never Again, and Again,” San Francisco Estuary Magazine, March 2021
San Francisco Good Times, issues of January 22, 1971 (Vol.IV, No.3) and January 29, 1971 (Vol. IV, No.4)
Jessica Gingrich, “When California Went to War Over Eggs,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 15, 2019
Lila Thulin, “How an Oil Spill Inspired the First Earth Day,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 22, 2019
Jak Wonderly, “Big Birds on the Block,” Smithsonian Magazine, September-October 2023, p.94
“Oil on Troubled Waters,” Time magazine, Feb 1, 1991, p.61
Books:
Adam Rome, The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-in Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation (Hill and Wang, 2014)
Orville Schell, The Town That Fought to Save Itself (Pantheon Book 1976).
Institutional:
Charlotte Hsu, University of Buffalo Now, “As Earth Day turns 50, its origins provide lessons for today’s climate activists,” January 31, 2020
“Little Rodent, Big Appetite: Researchers identify the dietary impacts of invasive mice on the Farallon Islands,” Sept. 22, 2022, Science X newsletter, Phys.org; by Michael J. Polito, Bret Robinson, Pete Warzybok, and Russell W. Bradley, Louisiana State University
Maria Gallucci, “At Last, the Shipping Industry Begins Cleaning Up Its Dirty Fuels,” Yale Environment 360, June 18, 2018
T. J. Conomos, “Movement of spilled oil as predicted by estuarine nontidal drift,” Limnology and Oceanography, March 1975 (Vol. 20, No.2)
Marguerite Kirk Harris, “Radical Environment Protectionism in a Small Community: a study of the Bolinas Water Moratorium,” Thesis for Master of Arts in History, Montana State University (August 1977)
William J. Chandler and Hannah Gillelan, “The History and Evolution of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act,” ELR News & Analysis (34 ELR 10505), Environmental Law Institute.
IBRRC, “Remembering the 1971 San Francisco Bay Oil Spill,” January 18, 2011, at birdrescue.org
David C. Smith, “Bird Rescue Efforts Following the 1971 Oil Spill - How Dawn became detergent of choice,” https://birdrescue.info/285-2/
Other:
Audubon Canyon Ranch Bulletin, Fall 2012 (No. 51) https://egret.org/bulletins/?jsf=jet-engine&pagenum=4
Raymond C. Balter, Terrain magazine, Nov. 1994 (at FoundSF, “The Early Bird Gets the Oily Bird.”) https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=THE_EARLY_BIRD_GETS_THE_OILY_BIRD
Jack Doyle, “Burn On, Big River – Cuyahoga River Fires,” at PopHistoryDig.com, May 12, 2014 https://pophistorydig.com/topics/cuyahoga-river-fires/
Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, 1972 newsletter. (Historical newsletters are found at the EAC website under About Us/50 year anniversary.)
Farallon Island Nuclear Waste Dump, The Center for Land Use Interpretation https://clui.org/ludb/site/farallon-island-nuclear-waste-dump
Susan McCarthy, “Bird Rescue in the 1971 Tanker Spill,” Western Neighborhoods Project, Outsidelands.org https://www.outsidelands.org/1971_oil_spill.php
Kevin Opstedal, “Dreaming As One: Poetry, Poets and Community in Bolinas, California, 1967-1980,” Chapter 5 (Bigbridge.org, not a secure website)
www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-timeline-of-environmental-movement/2988 https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/a-fierce-green-fire-timeline-of-environmental-movement/2988/
Union of Concerned Scientists, “The Endangered Endangered Species Act,” Published 5/16/2016, Updated Aug 19, 2019
United Way of the National Capital Area, Mar, 28, 2023; “16 Million Homes Vacant in U.S.,” realtor.com, citing research from LendingTree (Mar 2, 2022
Ethan Varian, “Bolinas wanted to stay hidden − then came the internet,” Curbed San Francisco, Oct. 1, 2019 https://sf.curbed.com/2019/10/1/20880275/bolinas-homes-housing-bay-area-short-term-rentals-displacement
Sophie Yeo, “How the largest environmental movement in history was born,” BBC, April 20, 2020
Kate Yoder, “Love it or hate it, Earth Day’s just not what it used to be. What happened?” at https://ethicalhour.com/ethicalbusiness/business-sector-news/charities-ngos/love-it-or-hate-it-earth-days-just-not-what-it-used-to-be-what-happened/
Other websites:
Audubon Canyon Ranch, https://egret.org
Environmental Action of West Marin, https://www.eacmarin.org
Greater Farallones Marine Sanctuary https://farallones.noaa.gov
International Bird Rescue, https://www.birdrescue.org
Marin Agricultural Land Trust, https://malt.org
Senator Gaylord Nelson, https://nelsonearthday.net.
Of further interest:
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE:
Two videos with archival footage of the 1971 spill clean up work can be seen at Environmental Action Committee of Marin’s website.
https://www.eacmarin.org/50-years-of-eac/2022/1/18/standard-oil-spill-eac.
The 24 minute video of the Evenson footage includes beach cleaning and a Dave McQueen broadcast. The KQED archival footage focuses on boom building in Bolinas.
Dean and Dudley Evenson traveled around the spill sites in 1971 taking videos, and their work can be seen in two youtube videos. “The San Francisco Bay Oil Spill, a Dean and Dudley Evenson video classic, 1971” in two parts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBCwMzMdnig (part 1) and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZbytA7byKQ (part 2)
PLANET WALKER: Shaken by the spill and by the death of a friend in a boating accident, West Marin resident John Francis stopped driving or even riding in motorized vehicles for the next 22 years. Francis traveled the globe on foot, crossing the United States with his banjo several times. He became known as the “Planet Walker.”
Early in his travels Francis found himself often arguing with people, whether strangers or friends, about his decision, and in 1973 decided to stop speaking for a day and only listen. He liked the results and decided to extend it for a year. He renewed the vow every year for 17 years, the only exception being one phone call to his mother. He ended his vow of silence on Earth Day 1990.
By then he had earned a doctorate and had become an expert on oil spills. When Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act in 1990, the Coast Guard asked Francis to write regulations for its enforcement. He was appointed a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations on environmental issues. He also wrote a book, Planetwalker: How to Change Your World One Step at a Time (published in 2008 by National Geographic Society) and started a nonprofit, Planetwalk, an environmental awareness organization, in 1985.
Today he is a visiting associate professor at the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For more info see www.planetwalker.org; Marilyn Berlin Snell, “Profile: The Walking Man,” Sierra Club, March/April 2007; Alex Horvath, “Environmentalist Finds His Voice: Writer John Francis is on a journey to change the world,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 26, 2005
DOCUMENTARY: The efforts to save the Marin coastline from development and the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore and Marin Agricultural Land Trust are showcased in a wonderful movie, “Rebels with a Cause.” https://rebelsdocumentary.org
DRAMATIZATION: “I’m Charlie Walker,” a feature film released on June 10, 2022, is an adaption of the real life story of Black trucking company owner Charlie Walker (played by Mike Colter) who faced racist hiring practices; when the oil spill happened, Standard Oil (renamed Tower Oil in the movie) contracted with him to clean portions of the beaches. Cameos by Boots Riley and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Unfortunately the movie completely changes almost everything about the events. For just a few examples: Except for a short excerpt from an actual news show at the beginning of the movie, there are almost no scenes of people cleaning the beaches, the beaches don’t even appear to be oiled, the president of the oil company turns over the clean up operation (not just hauling away oiled hay) to Walker, and the state serves Walker with papers demanding that he pay the volunteers.
TOM D’ONOFRIO was a student at U.C. Berkeley when he happened to walk into the Free Speech Movement rally and heard Mario Savio speaking. D’Onofrio was transformed. He moved to Bolinas in 1968 and four years later, inspired by craft guilds of the Middle Ages, he created the Baulines Craft Guild, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting California’s craft arts legacy. His wood sculptures are astonishingly beautiful, with perhaps the best-known being the Sea Serpent and Rose Dragon Table he made for Grace Slick and Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane. The idea for the unique design came to him during a walk on Agate Beach.
He died in 2015. For a moving tribute to him, see his obituary in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/obituaries/2015/08/tom-d-onofrio-bolinas-california-community-activist-and-singular-wood-sculptor-dies-at-73/
Dr. GORDON CHAN taught high school and college students in Marin County for thirty years, inspiring hundreds of future scientists with his exuberant personality and deep love of nature. Among his many other accomplishments, he was instrumental in creating the Duxbury Reef Marine Reserve. He died in 1996. Two plaques in Marin pay tribute to him.
For a stirring account of his life, work, and legacy, see Eric Simons, “The Legacy of Gordon Chan,” bay nature.org. https://baynature.org/2021/05/19/the-legacy-of-gordon-chan/
