Chemical Spill in Irvine Channel Fouls Water

A milky substance that appeared to be machine oil or latex paint, possibly laced with traces of pesticide, flowed into a flood control channel near Main Street and Jamboree Boulevard in Irvine on Sunday, contaminating at least 20,000 gallons of water, officials estimated.

As firefighters worked to sandbag the channel and vacuum trucks were called, officials of the county Environmental Management Agency tried to determine where the white substance was coming from.

The spill was in the same channel as a spill that was discovered on Easter Day.

Firefighters riding on a fire truck spotted the latest spill shortly after noon Sunday. By midafternoon, the county’s Hazardous Materials Response Team had contained the spill by sandbagging the channel, which leads into the San Diego Creek and ultimately Upper Newport Bay.

Chuck Nicola, the Orange County Fire Department battalion chief at the scene, said his crew had traced the spill as far as Red Hill Avenue and Barranca Road, but because the channel branches out and goes underground there, the spill’s origin was unknown.

Nicola said the substance appeared to be water-soluble latex paint, possibly with traces of pesticides. The pesticides, if any, might have been picked up as the channel passed agricultural fields, Nicola said. Because insects were landing on the water and surviving, it was believed the concentrations of pesticides probably were low, he said.

Nira Yamachika, a county environmental resource specialist, said the substance had not killed fish in the channel.

Late Sunday, James Anderson, executive officer of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the substance could be a white oil used by shops that cut steel. The problem, he said, is that about 100 machine shops in the area use that oil.

Substance Still Flowing

Another problem, Yamachika said, was that “We can’t find a lab that’s open. We tried to contact UCI and the numerous outside labs . . . what makes it hard is the Memorial Day weekend. It’s hard to get someone.” The substance probably won’t be analyzed until Tuesday, she said.

Anderson estimated that more than 20,000 gallons of water had been contaminated, and he said the white substance was still flowing Sunday evening at the rate of about 5 gallons a minute.

Yamachika said construction crews working near the intersection of Barranca and Redhill Sunday said they had seen the substance in the channel two days ago. Because the spill may not be fresh, finding those responsible for it may be impossible, she said.

The spill had to originate in Tustin or Santa Ana, Anderson said, because that’s where the channel goes underground. But, Yamachika said, “if the spill occured two days ago and if the source hosed his site down so it is clean, it will be difficult to trace its origin.”

Pumping trucks from IT Corp. of Wilmington began sucking water from the channel at about 6:30 p.m. “We’ve ordered four of them so far, and we may order additional trucks,” Yamachika said. The water will be stored in tanks at the Irvine Ranch Water District.

Nicola said a second dike was being built 1 1/2 miles up the channel to slow the flow and help the cleanup.

Officials said they hoped to have most of the substance vacuumed out of the channel by Sunday night, but the cleanup could continue until Tuesday, Nicola said.

The spill was in the same flood control channel where a 4 1/2-mile-long patch of murky green liquid was discovered on Easter day.

Two spills actually accounted for the contamination that flowed into San Diego creek on April 7. Part of the spilled substance was found to be aircraft cleaning solvent from the Marine Corps helicopter base in Tustin.

Although the spill Sunday is in the same vicinity, Yamachika said it was unlikely that the Marines were responsible. “All indications are that it is not coming from the base,” she said.