Pipeline Firm in Tustin Spill May Not Have to Pay a Fine

The pipeline company responsible for a gasoline spill that forced the evacuation of 1,500 Tustin Marines and their families Nov. 22 may not have to pay a fine, a water board official said Friday.

Jerry A. King, chairman of the Santa Ana Region of the state Water Quality Control Board, acknowledged that preliminary findings indicated that the potential for an “environmental disaster” existed. But King said the spill, which was caused by a faulty pipe seam, was unintentional and that the company, San Diego Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Southern Pacific Pipeline Co., was not negligent.

“I know that board’s staff is not leaning towards any enforcement action right now,” King said at a meeting in Santa Ana where board members were given an informational briefing on the spill.

Although initial estimates of the size of the spill ranged from 20,000 to 60,000 gallons, company officials later told regulatory agencies that 462,000 gallons of premium unleaded gasoline were discharged in a two-hour period.

As a result, the spill now is regarded as the largest release of hazardous materials in the history of the 30-year-old regional water quality control board, which monitors San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.

Whether or not it is fined, San Diego Pipeline will be faced with paying for the costly cleanup of the spill, removal of contaminated soil and other related costs that are expected to be in the millions of dollars.

The accident killed all wildlife for about two miles along a flood-control channel near the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station and threatened to send 3.2 million gallons of contaminated water into Newport Bay, a wildlife area that is home to sensitive and endangered species.

In tentatively rejecting negligence, King said the ruptured 10-inch pipe was inspected three years ago, well within the state’s five-year scheduled maintenance period.

King even praised the pipeline company for its cooperation with emergency clean-up agencies immediately after the rupture. And board member Ira Calvert offered the board’s thanks to the pipeline company, although some staff members said they believed the expression of such a sentiment was premature.

An attorney for the company, Gregory Cunningham of Los Angeles, said company officials “would be delighted” with the chairman’s statements.

Recommendation Due

A final recommendation regarding any enforcement fine is expected at the board’s Feb. 11 meeting. The maximum penalty the company could be assessed is $4.6 million, about $10 for every gallon discharged.

As of Dec. 8, cleanup costs from the spill were about $1.2 million, said Bruce Paine, a sanitary engineer associated with the water board.

Cunningham said, “We do not have a final determination yet on the costs although the cleanup is about 95% completed.”

But that figure does not include additional costs for removal of about 11,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, roughly the equivalent of two acres of dirt, three feet deep.

Paine wasn’t as enthusiastic about the company’s response to the spill as some board members, saying the company balked at soil removal at a Dec. 18 meeting with regulatory officials.

Although the company agreed to an initial removal of about 5,000 cubic yards of soil, it initially refused to remove another 6,000 cubic yards recommended by the agencies, Paine said.

Puddles of Fuel

“They wanted to leave the soil essentially intact,” Paine said, despite a field examination at the time showed puddles of fuel, “created by the imprint of your boots.”

“It would have left a continually hazardous situation,” Paine said. “Every time it would rain, (fuel) would have leached into the ground” to join an underground stream that traveled to Newport Bay and would have endangered some rare animal species.

As a result, the company was ordered by the state Fish and Game Department to remove the additional 6,000 cubic yards by Jan. 16 or suffer penalties, said Jan Yost, a state Fish and Game warden who has monitored cleanup of the spill.

Contaminated soil removal is still under way, Yost said.

Hundreds of frogs, minnows, crayfish, and birds, including blue herons, died because of the spill, board officials said.

But, said James R. Bennett, the board’s executive officer, “we escaped pretty well without having an ecological disaster in Upper Newport Bay.”

Some “distressed” animals have been found in the bay, about five to six miles downstream from the rupture, according to subsequent studies, Yost said.

A final tally of the number of animals, fish, and fowl killed or injured because of the spill is incomplete, Yost said.

Yost added that the pipeline company can also be held liable for any long-term effects to the environment.

“We don’t know yet what the long-term effects are. The problem here is that the spill destroyed the food chain,” she said.

The pipeline was repaired early on Nov. 23, and those evacuated were allowed to return home. But at its peak, the concentration of volatile gasoline fumes prompted fire officials to halt nearby train traffic for fear that a spark from train wheels would set off an explosion.

Although the pipe was buried eight feet underground, the rupture bore created a hole in the earth and spewed fuel onto the top of a nearby 50-foot-tall building, dozens of feet away. Fire officials said that if an air conditioner had been operating on the building roof, an explosion could have been caused by a spark. At the time, the building was vacant, board officials said.