Brea : Cleanup of Oil Spill Continues Into 3rd Day

Cleanup crews continued working for a third day Monday to remove 1,000 gallons of waste oil that spilled into a flood control channel in Brea after the rupture of an industrial sewer line from area oil fields.

Crews used absorbent booms and pads across the contaminated channel to contain the oily slick and prevent it from spreading into nearby Craig Regional Park in Fullerton.

The Brea Fire Department responded to the Friday spill at 2:18 p.m., when the industrial waste line became clogged, spilling waste water collected from the oil fields onto the ground near Imperial Highway and Randolph Street, Fire Chief Jerry McDowell said.

The waste water then overflowed through a manhole in the 200 block of South Pine Street and entered the flood control channel, McDowell said.

Oil companies using the sewer line have decreased their waste flow until the ruptured line is repaired, McDowell said.

Don Schilling, water pollution engineering specialist with the Orange County Environmental Management Agency, was supervising the cleanup by crews from Nieto and Sons Vacuum Service of Brea.

Officials for the county’s environmental health division and the state Department and Fish and Game are also monitoring the situation, but Schilling said, “This is a real minor spill as far as spills go. It’s not nearly the environmental threat that a crude (oil) spill or sewage spill would be.”