2 Chemical Spills Cause Plant Evacuation, Tieup on Freeway

Traffic was tied up for several hours on the Ventura Freeway and three Litton Industries employees were hospitalized briefly Monday in two unrelated hazardous chemical spills in the San Fernando Valley.

The Fire Department’s hazardous materials team evacuated about 200 employees at Litton Industries’ Data Systems Division plant in Van Nuys at about 12:30 p.m. after 150 gallons of ammonia sulfide solution leaked from an outside tank, the Fire Department said.

Three employees who may have breathed fumes from the chemical were taken to Northridge Hospital, where they were examined and released without treatment, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Dean Wasson, manager of facilities planning at the Litton plant, said an employee caused the spill by turning a valve the wrong way. Wasson said the chemical, used in the manufacture of printed electronic circuits, posed no hazard to anyone outside the plant at 15901 Strathern St.

In the second spill, a truck carrying a phosphoric acid solution lost most of the contents of a 320-gallon tank over a stretch of the Ventura Freeway.

A spokesman for the Highway Patrol said that a valve apparently broke on one of two portable tanks on the truck, owned by Admiral Transport of Santa Fe Springs. The driver stopped near Reseda Boulevard, where about 75 gallons of the liquid drained onto the shoulder.

Firefighters neutralized the spill, but traffic remained congested until 5 p.m. The driver was cited for spilling cargo on the freeway, authorities said.