by BRUCE
JACOBS
Crain's Cleveland Business
February 25, 1990
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif - "You tend to run on
adrenaline." said Chuck Webster. And Marlboros. And hamburgers. And not
much sleep he might have added, had his celullar phone not begun to bleep
again.
This is the 10th oil spill of Mr. Webster's career -- 394,000
gallons of Alaskan crude threatining a 12- to 15- mile stretch of coast near
here, about 45 minutes south of Los Angeles.
Mr. Webster is BP America Inc.'s crisis manager, and for him,
dressing for success last week meant a pair of jeans, Polo shirt and dirty
Reeboks. Some sun block wouldn't have hurt either, judging by the look of his
steadily pinkening nose.
"If BP product is in the water, we will be there with our
expertise," said Mr. Webster, who hastened to add that the tanker
responsible for the spill was leased to BP and the shipper has accpeted full
financial responsibility for the accident.
The spill occured on Feb. 7. when the tanker American Trader
gored itself on its own anchor as it was coming in to the harbor here to
deliver its load of BP's oil,
As the tragedy struck, at 7:30pm. Cleveland time, Mr. Webster
was in a YMCA near his Westlake home thinking of nothing more complicated then
picking up summer camp applications for his daughters. Two hours later, he was
on a plane to California.
"That first day," he said, "I didn't get to
sleep until 1 a.m. Friday."
With more than 80% of the oil accounted for now, the days have
eased up. They only last about 18 hours. Here are a few of them:
Tuesday, Feb. 13 - The day breaks most un-California lke: slate
gray and chilly. There will be more than 1,100 cleanup workers dotting the sand
in their yellow slickers trying to remove the black invader from the beach.
Federal, state and local officials and technical experts are all on the scene,
hoping to open the beaches as soon as possible. A growing army of reporters
pepper them with questions.
Wednesday, Feb. 14 - Weather aside, this day's activities are
typical for Mr. Webster.
6 a.m. - Meets with crisis team, about a hundred or so BP
employees of varying expertise, to plan the day's activities. Crisis team
members man a command post at BP facillities in Long Beach, a short hope from
the disaster area in Huntington.
9:30 a.m. - Meets with city officials at lifeguard station here
serving as field headquarters.
10:00 a.m. - Leaves meeting and answers questions from half a
dozen local reporters.
10:15 a.m. - Brief conference with an Occupational Safety and
Health Administration official in the federal agency's communication's trailer
temporarily housed in a parking lot here.
10:20 a.m. - Impromptu parking lot meeting with official of
Med-Tox, the company hired to train clean-up workers.
10:30 a.m. - Takes short drive down the beach to check on bird
rescue operations at another lifeguard station.
11 a.m. - Makes the rounds to the lifeguard station. Talks to
state fish and game officials and volunteers involved in animal rescue
programs. "I've been associated with bird rehab since '78," said Mr.
Webster, "and I take the damage to wildlife very personally."
11:23 a.m. - Climbs five flights of stairs to the lifeguard
tower, a glass enclosure offering a panoramic view of the beach and the
hundreds of workers shoveling oilied sand into plastic bags.
"What do you need?" Mr. Webster asks several
representatives of the California Fish and Game Department.
11:30 a.m. - Spends the next 20 minutes on the phone trying to
line up a copying machine for the bird rehab people.
11:55 a.m. - Fields questions from several local and national
media outlets, including Cable News Network.
2 p.m. - Back to the main lifeguard headquarters. Curses the
weak batteries on his cellular phone. Checks in with command center in Long
Beach. Coordinates by cellular phone a meeting between Fred Garibaldi, BP vice
president of transportaion, and OSHA.
2:25 p.m. - Presents a check for $5,000 to the local fire
department, BP's donation to the bird rehab effort.
2:35 p.m. - Briefs Mr. Garibaldi on the meeting with OSHA.
Three BP crisis experts apprise Mr. Webster that a grader equipped with a
rubber tip may be able to remove oil without destroying the beach. The
experiment is confirmed for 4 p.m. that day.
2:50 p.m. - Calls Long Beach command center and tells
poersonnel there to put out an advisory: People seeking paid clean-up jobs
should stop calling the independent contractors for the moment.
3:05 p.m. - Walks across the street to the Jack in the Box. Mr.
Garibaldi is sneaking a burger. The two men discuss the formal press conference
scheduled for 3:30 in the lifeguard station parking lot. Mr. Webster mans his
phone, trying to locate an updated version of some technical papers.
3:30 p.m. - Formal press conference involving the city's mayor,
Mr. Garibaldi, the Coast Guard commandant, an official of the Californian Fish
and Game Department and the controller for the state of California. During the
short meeting, Mr. Webster is off by himself in the parking lot, talking on his
hand-held telephone, apprising state Senator Miriam Burgeson of the progress so
far.
4:23 p.m. - hops in gray Olds with Mr. Garibaldi and heads down
to beach a mile or so to watch the rubber-tipped grader do its stff. After a
brief demonstration, it's questionable whether the idea would be successful.
4:55 p.m. - Drives Mr. Garibaldi back to Long Beach. Will
return here to here to make himself available for the media.
7 p.m. - Back to Long Beach. Wrap-up session with the crisis
staff and preparation of a list of tomorrow's activities.
"The trick in a crisis situation is to pace
yourself," said Mr. Webster. "I try to get to bed by 9. I usually
make it by 11." Still, after six hard days, Mr. Webster maintains not only
this grueling pace but also his patience and enthusiasm for making certain the
job gets done, gets done right.
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