Oil

How many of you remember the names of those two radio characters from Pine Ridge, Ark.? If you remember the golden age of radio of the 1930s and '40s, you will remember those two lovable business partners, Lum and Abner, and their famous Jot 'Em Down store. Each week the characters, Lum Edwards and Abner Peabody, partners in Pine Ridge's General Store, would bring radio audiences some down-home humor as the partners serviced the needs of their fictional townspeople. The 1920s were a time of growth for Huntington Beach as oil was pumped out of the ground, refined and pumped back into the many cars in town.

Jenny Marder Crude oil and gas spewed 40 feet into the air from a ruptured well on Wednesday morning and rained down for hours, coating 100 houses and cars with a thin, sticky film. The idle well erupted just before 6 a.m., spurting oil and waking up surrounding residents with its loud, hissing spray. "It woke me up out of a dead sleep," said Nancy Buchoz, who lives on Rhodesia Drive, which intersects Magnolia Street where the spill occurred.

The Huntington Beach Fire Department and other agencies are working to clean an apparent oil spill in a flood control channel east of Beach Boulevard. The Fire and Public Works departments joined with the Department of Fish and Game, Coast Guard and Orange County Health Department to contain the problem after calls came in about 9 a.m. today. Martha Werth, a spokeswoman for the fire department, said the responders were trying to determine the substance’s origin. “They pretty much have determined it is oil,” she said.

Eron Ben-Yehuda HUNTINGTON BEACH -- A local company will be the first in the county to use a technique that promises to dramatically cut the time required to reduce the level of oil in the ground left from abandoned wells. Simple Green, with $350,000 provided by the city through a federal grant, will use its cleaning solution and a 37,000-pound machine known as The Microenfractionator to decontaminate a "sludge pit" adjacent to the Central Park Equestrian Center, at Goldenwest Street and Ellis Avenue, said Milt Krause, vice president of environmental techniques.

Oil is what Huntington Beach was best noted for, and with the coming of oil came the oil promoter. This week we'll look at one of these flamboyant oil promoters whose life of flashy cars, horses and dreams of quick wealth would lead Charlie Black into murder and to the taking of his own life. Charles F. Black was born in Belleview, Idaho in 1898, where his father ran the 7-up ranch. Black came to Huntington Beach with his wife and daughter Betty in the early 1920s, seeking his pot of black gold.

A LOOK BACK For nearly 98 years, the residents of Huntington Beach have enjoyed a peaceful way of life. Oh sure, there were floods, two world wars and an earthquake to interrupt their tranquil atmosphere, but those were no problem. But there was one word that struck terror in the hearts of Huntington Beach residents -- fire. We're not talking about a simple grease fire over a cooking stove at home, or even the burning of weeds in some vacant lot in town.

I ran into longtime resident -- and one of our favorite real estate agents of the past -- Pam Cooper at the post office on Olive Avenue. During our conversation, the name of this week's subject came up. This week, we're going back to look at an earlier Huntington Beach real estate agent, Carlos Joseph Reeves. Reeves used to tell people, "I was born the same day as Christopher Columbus, but all he did was discover America while I discovered that Huntington Beach was the best part of America."

With every step I take, I feel as if I'm walking farther from the world I knew. In disbelief, I keep trying to make sense of what it is I am seeing. I still can't. I have chills just thinking about it. My eyes are watering, and this untamable emotion is running through me. Visiting Grand Isle yesterday was just like attending my best friend's funeral because the ocean in Grand Isle is dead. It is a ghost town; the beach is empty except for rude and disrespectful BP cleanup crews, who adeptly avoid speaking about the spill.

Jenny Marder Crews are scrambling to clean hundreds of homes and cars that were sprayed with oil as it rained a greasy mist onto a neighborhood in Southeast Huntington Beach. "It's like tar on your feet from the beach," said Nancy Buchoz, whose house on Rhodesia Drive flanks Magnolia Street, where an oil pipe burst last week, gushing crude oil 40 feet into the air. Since the idle well erupted just before 6 a.m. on March 17, gushing out some 1,700 gallons of oil, about 87 homeowners have filed claims.

The Orange County Public Works Department said a mile-long sheen of petroleum in a flood control channel south of Warner Avenue was noticed on Sunday. Public Works Manager of Environmental Resources Chris Crompton said the sheen did not pass into outer Bolsa Chica Bay or the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Crompton described the spill as "fairly small and discrete" with no continuing source. On Wednesday, he said it had largely dissipated or been absorbed by the booms, which have been in place since Sunday.

The Huntington Beach City Council unanimously approved a property owner's plan to remove three oil tanks from the city's southeastern area at Monday's meeting, concluding a lengthy process that was drawn out by two appeals last year. Plains All American Pipeline, a Texas-based oil company, can now demolish three empty oil tanks and more than 2,342 feet of above-ground piping on its property at 21845 Magnolia St. after the proposal was approved with a 7-0 vote by the council. The matter passed without much discussion after Plains All American reached an agreement with the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy earlier Monday.

As a serial entrepreneur who has created hundreds and hundreds of jobs over my career, I'm going to share with you a fact that might prove a bit shocking to some. Entrepreneurs don't start companies to create jobs. Rather, they start companies to make money. And gain a measure of freedom. And have some fun not usually afforded those who toil endlessly for "the man. " And if they are successful, job creation results. It is nothing but a byproduct. And the greater an entrepreneur's success, the more jobs are created.

A clean-up crew is digging trenches on Goldenwest Street to get to the source of an oil spill after at least 850 gallons were discharged on the surface Friday morning. City maintenance workers, and the Police and Fire departments responded after a passerby noticed oil seeping through the asphalt on the southbound side of the street, south of Ellis Avenue, said Huntington Beach Deputy Fire Marshal Jeff Lopez. "The crew wants to see if they can open the street for a few days to get through the weekend, but we don't know yet," he said.

The Huntington Beach Planning Commission voted Tuesday to uphold the city's decision to allow a property owner to remove three oil tanks, but the head of a local nonprofit said his group plans to appeal. Commissioner Mark Bixby appealed the January approval of Plains All American Pipeline's plan to demolish three empty above-ground crude oil storage tanks and about 2,340 linear feet of above-ground transfer piping at 21845 Magnolia St. The zoning administrator approved the project Jan. 19, and Bixby appealed the decision two days later, claiming the project could have negative environmental impacts.

The planned demolition of the oil storage tanks on Magnolia Street is good news ("Company proposes removing oil tanks," Dec. 9). However, I hope that such action does not presage an application for the construction of an LNG complex at that location. I am unable to find an accompanying proposal for abandonment of the pipeline right of way, which extends from the Magnolia tank farm through Huntington Beach to terminal facilities in Long Beach. In my opinion, the city needs more information about the proposed deconstruction.

In southeastern Huntington Beach by Pacific Coast Highway, the AES power plant billows white smoke into the sky. A few block north, the Ascon Landfill Site continues its removal of toxic waste. Poseidon Resources awaits approval of its plan to install a water desalination plant on the coast. But the area near Hamilton Avenue and Magnolia Street may soon have 32 acres of vacant land, and some residents are rooting for green to fill that space. Plains All American Pipeline, owner of 21845 Magnolia St., has announced plans to remove three oil storage tanks adjoining the power plant.

With every step I take, I feel as if I'm walking farther from the world I knew. In disbelief, I keep trying to make sense of what it is I am seeing. I still can't. I have chills just thinking about it. My eyes are watering, and this untamable emotion is running through me. Visiting Grand Isle yesterday was just like attending my best friend's funeral because the ocean in Grand Isle is dead. It is a ghost town; the beach is empty except for rude and disrespectful BP cleanup crews, who adeptly avoid speaking about the spill.

"I've been near what I believed to be was a big dirt clod in the muck. Then it blinks. And you realize, it's an oiled bird." Debbie McGuire, wildlife director at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center here in Huntington Beach, is talking about what it's like on an oil spill recovery mission. Given the brutal devastation in the Gulf wetlands as a result of the BP oil spill, I thought I'd talk to Debbie. She's one of the best in the business when it comes to saving animal lives in the face of catastrophes like this, and that's why she soon may find herself helping in the Gulf.

T he tragedy that struck the coastal wetlands of the Gulf Coast raises the question: Could a similar catastrophe occur to our own wetlands like Bolsa Chica, which is still an active oil field? Over the years, a few oil spills have occurred in the wetland from sources outside Bolsa Chica. While they did not and probably never will approach the magnitude of the Gulf spill, they did cause some ecological and economic damage. I expect they will continue to occur, which brings up another question: Are we prepared?