Spillworks : Long Oily Road Ahead for Crews Cleaning Mess on Encino Streets

Ventura Boulevard in Encino was reopened to traffic Monday, two days after at least 70,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from a pipeline and flowed down city streets before draining into the Los Angeles River. But officials said a cleanup will take weeks to finish.

While businesses and residents of the 16-block area between Gloria and Libbit avenues attempted to return to normal, cleanup measures continued in the neighborhood and along the river as far downstream as Long Beach.

Wildlife experts were also attempting to save endangered water birds and assess the environmental impact of the spill.

“The oil is still out there up and down the river,” said Lt. Reed Smith, the state Department of Fish and Game’s spill response coordinator. “It’s going to take about three weeks to clean up.”

The oil leaked from a Mobil Oil Co. underground pipeline about 4 a.m. Saturday. It bubbled up through the pavement at the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Woodley Avenue and leaked for an estimated four hours before Mobil could the repair the break in the 10-inch pipe, which runs 180 miles from Bakersfield to the company’s refinery in Torrance.

The cause of the rupture, which occured in an 18-year-old section of the pipeline, had not been determined Monday, said Mobil spokesman James A. Carbonetti.

In April, 1986, the same pipeline leaked about 5,000 gallons of crude oil after a rupture caused by corrosion occurred in Granada Hills, he said.

The Mobil line was stress-tested about two years ago, and no problems were found in the section that leaked Saturday, said Robert Gorham, associate pipeline safety engineer with the state fire marshal’s office.

Gorham said the Mobil line is one of four or five long-distance pipelines that travel into Los Angeles County. However, there are an estimated 2,500 miles of underground pipelines, mostly carrying crude oil, throughout the Los Angeles area, he said.

Monitoring equipment alerted Mobil technicians to the break immediately, and the pipeline was electronically stopped within four minutes, authorities said.

“Unfortunately, the pipeline starts going uphill in that area, and all the oil that was going up came back down and leaked out,” said Miguel Garcia of the county Health Department’s hazardous materials unit. “We estimate 70,000 to 90,000 gallons leaked out, maybe more.”

3 More Days

Though Ventura Boulevard was reopened to traffic before dawn Monday, officials said a cleanup of the oil from the busy thoroughfare and residential areas to the north will take about three more days to complete.

Mobil spread sand on the oil and hosed down the streets with hot water. Companies were hired to vacuum the thick, sticky mess into tanker trucks and then steam-clean the pavement.

“It’s still pretty messy,” said Jerry Mills, manager of a Travelodge motel on Ventura Boulevard near where the oil leak occurred. “When you get that stuff down in the pavement, it still looks bad after you clean it up.”

The leaked oil traveled along city streets for a mile before going down storm drains that empty into the Los Angeles River. The oil was being cleaned off of the river by 20 absorbent “booms,” which float on the surface and collect oil, authorities said. The booms have been placed across the river in eight locations between Encino and Long Beach.

Fish and Game officials said the flow of oil on the river was stopped before it reached the mouth of the river in Long Beach. “It has not come in contact with any marine waters,” spokesman Patrick Moore said.

Oil-Skimming Boats

Mobil has hired a crew of boats equiped with oil-skimming devices to be on standby at the mouth of the river should any oil leak further. So far, Carbonetti said, the cost of the cleanup is estimated at $1 million.

Although saltwater wildlife probably will be spared from the effects of the oil spill, authorities said that as many as 200 waterfowl that had landed in the river, particularly in the Glendale area, became covered with the sticky oil.

Smith said 20 mallards and other birds were captured and were being cleaned at a Los Angeles animal shelter. Authorities gave the birds a 60% chance of surviving.

“Waterfowl from upriver seem to be collapsing first,” Smith said. “Other birds from down near Long Beach have come in contact with the oil but are still flying. They will be feeling the effects in the next few days.”

Lt. Gordon Zeller of the city Animal Regulation Department said a bird-cleaning line at the North-Central Animal Shelter near downtown will be used to help save the birds. Mobil has hired state-licensed wildlife rehabilitators to take part in the rescue effort.

Uncertain Effect on Fish

Officials said Fish and Game biologists were attempting to determine what impact the oil spill will have on freshwater fish populations in the river, particularly toward the mouth of the river in Long Beach.

“It is hard to assess,” Moore said. “There have been a few turning belly up, but in the normal course of events, we don’t know how many would turn belly up anyway. You don’t have real quality water in the Los Angeles River. It is not your prime fishery. So, it is the birds we are worried about the most.”

The oil spill has also caused a problem for horses and their owners in the Glendale area. People who keep their horses at stables where Rigali Avenue becomes a dead end at the Los Angeles River usually walk their animals through the shallow basin to get to trails in Griffith Park. They said Monday that the oil spill has made the crossing impossible.

‘It is limiting our use of the park,” said Chris Runge, manager of River Ridge Stables. “There are approximately 500 horses that now have no access to the park.”