Ventura Boulevard to Reopen but Oil Spill Effects Linger

Mobil Oil Co. officials expected to open a half-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard in Encino by this morning after it was forced to close early Saturday by a 60,000-gallon leak of crude oil from the company’s underground pipeline.

But officials said that it could take as long as a week to clean the 16-square-block area north of the busy thoroughfare where a 6-inch-deep river of black goo had lapped at driveways, closed freeway ramps and forced some businesses to shut early.

Wildlife officials also feared that dozens of ducks could die from the oil, which flowed along city streets for a mile before emptying into storm drains that carried it, via the Los Angeles River, as far south as Long Beach.

Mallards Covered

Seven oil-covered mallards were caught in the river basin south of Glendale on Sunday and were taken to the Los Angeles Zoo for cleaning, but state Department of Fish and Game officials said they saw more than 200 ducks with oil stuck to their feathers.

“Optimistically, we’re looking at a 30% survival rate of those that we capture,” said Millicent Wood, a state-licensed wildlife rehabilitator who helped bathe the ducks in detergent and hot water. “The oil is very thick and sticky, and some of the ducks are almost all black.”

The oil, which flowed for about four hours after bubbling through the pavement at the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Woodley Avenue about 4 a.m. Saturday, is not flammable and does not pose a health threat, officials said. No injuries were reported and no one was evacuated as a result of the spill.

Mobil officials said the cause of the leak could not be determined until a metal specialist examined a section of the 10-inch pipe, which runs 180 miles from Bakersfield to the company’s refinery in Torrance.

Several Mobil officials and an insurance agent went door to door through the well-kept neighborhood over the weekend providing claim forms to residents whose driveways and cars had been splattered with the smelly ooze.

Meanwhile, cleanup crews hired by Mobil poured sand on the spill and hosed down the streets with hot water. They also laid planks across driveways so that residents could use their cars without splashing oil.

“It stinks,” said Judy Leon, who lives in the neighborhood. “It looks like thick molasses.”

Arthur Minasian, another neighbor, said that he missed his 83rd birthday party because the flowing gunk made it impossible for his family to pick him up.

“We were quarantined,” he said.

Angry merchants along Ventura Boulevard, from Libbit Avenue to Gloria Avenue, also complained that the spill was keeping away customers.

“I hope they clean it up soon because we haven’t had any business,” said Mike Lale, whose Fashion Cleaners usually draws about 50 customers on a weekend day.

The rupture was detected by a Mobil worker Saturday morning when monitoring devices at the company’s Torrance headquarters alerted him to a sudden drop in pressure along the pipeline. The flow was shut off within four minutes, said Mobil spokesman James A. Carbonetti, but the oil continued to bubble out until 8 a.m.