ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- It's check-up time for this surf scoter, one of the last remaining at the International Bird Rescue Center in Fairfield.
Staff and volunteers have been nursing scores of birds that were discovered along San Francisco Bay in January with a mysterious goo coating their feathers.
"It definitely had the texture of a rubber cement-type product," explained Rebecca Duerr, with the International Bird Rescue Center.
They still don't know what it is, but they do know that it is not oil-based. And that's a problem.
In an oil spill, like the 2007 Cosco Busan container ship accident, the state has a coordinated response and resources. But since this January incident was not petroleum-based, there is no funding mechanism to help nonprofits rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife.
International Bird Rescue Center alone has spent more than $150,000.
"It was a very expensive operation, plus just paying for all the food and medicine for the animals. It has been very taxing," said Duerr.
Two state senators stepped forward on Monday to try to close a loophole in state law that has left nonprofit agencies holding the bag for caring for wildlife recently affected by that mysterious gunk in the bay.
State Senator Mark Leno, with input from San Francisco Baykeeper and the Audubon society, is co-authoring a bill that would authorize state money to be paid back by the spill's perpetrators if and when they're caught.
"The responsible party would have to not only reimburse the nonprofit up to $300,000 dollars of expenses, they'll have to pay a fine and also any additional environmental mitigation that may be necessary," stated Leno.
Senator Leno would also like to see the guilty party face an extra penalty for not coming forward immediately.