Harbor patrol searched, couldn’t find California oil spill

By AMY TAXIN and BRIAN MELLEY
Associated Press

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — Southern California harbor patrol boats picked up reports of a possible fuel spill off the coast on a marine radio emergency channel about an hour before the U.S. Coast Guard said it heard about oil on the water. An Orange County sheriff’s department spokeswoman says harbor patrol boats off the coast of Huntington Beach picked up radio chatter among local vessels about an oily sheen and smell on Oct. 1 and went to check on it but found nothing. A Coast Guard official says the agency heard a radio report of a possible spill about an hour later. The accounts raise new questions about how agencies learned about the spill.