Creative Commons/ingridtaylar

Beaches around the Bay Area were closed following the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill

Nearly four years after the Cosco Busan, a container ship, clipped the Bay Bridge and dumped 53,000 gallons of toxic fuel into San Francisco Bay, the ship's owners and operators agreed to pay a combined $44 million to compensate for the damage the spill caused.

“With this settlement,” U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement Monday, “we are seeing to it that those responsible for the spill are held accountable and that they pay their share for restoring and improving our precious natural resources and public lands.”

Nearly 7,000 birds, countless fish eggs and several seals were killed by the oil after the ship collided with a fender at the base of one of the Bay Bridge's towers on Nov. 7, 2007.

Under the proposed settlement agreement, $44.4 million would be provided to federal, state and local agencies. Of that amount, $19 million would be invested in projects to restore trails, beaches and other recreational waterfront facilities, according to the California Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

Another $5 million would be spent on bird projects, $4 million would be spent on habitat restoration and $2.5 million would be spent on projects to enhance eelgrass habitats and improve fish populations, according to the office.

The settlement agreement would also compensate government agencies for oil spill response and other costs.

Baykeeper, one of the first environmental organizations to respond to the oil spill, criticized the amount and planned allocation of the money.

"It seems low to me," Executive Director Deb Self said. "It was mostly ecological damage that was caused by the oil spill -- and that should really be the focus of the oil spill restoration fund."

Individual projects that would receive money from the payments have not yet been determined.

All of the settlement money will come from ship owner Regal Stone Ltd. and operator Fleet Management Inc.

The National Transportation Safety Board found that Bar Pilot John Cota's use of prescription drugs contributed to the collision. Cota previously pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and served an unprecedented 10-month federal prison sentence for his role in the incident. Fleet Management was fined $10 million.

Federal prosecutors, using controversial material witness warrants, held six members of the Cosco Busan's crew in the United States for more than a year after the collision.