Vials of Mystery Chemicals Wash Up on County Beaches

About 45 small vials of strange-looking, unidentified chemicals washed up on county beaches from Bolsa Chica to Crystal Cove on Monday, triggering concern among regulatory agencies and a warning to the public not to open the containers.

Officials said the vials did not appear to be medical waste, but they did not rule out that possibility. Hazardous-materials experts said they were concerned that the chemicals might be explosive if opened.

“The beaches are not being closed to the public, but we’re having patrols of the beaches every hour to look for more of these (vials), and we’re asking the public to be careful if they find one of these,” said Fred Gaggioli, a hazardous-waste specialist with the county’s Environmental Health Department.

Twenty-one vials were found near the water’s edge in Newport Beach, about nine were found along Bolsa Chica State Beach, and the remainder were scattered along the shores at Huntington Beach and at Crystal Cove State Park just north of Laguna Beach.

Late Monday, the origin of the vials was still undetermined.

“If I had to guess, I’d guess they came from a ship,” state Park Ranger Ken Smith said. “They don’t look like they’ve been in the water a long time.”

Park rangers called in the county Sheriff’s Department’s crime lab experts to determine whether the chemicals are dangerous. Lt. Richard J. Olson, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said late Monday no identification had been made.

The unidentified substances washed ashore in two types of heavy, clear plastic containers. One container is about 4 1/2 inches tall, 1 1/2 inches wide and contains an ampul floating in an oil-like liquid. The ampul holds white crystals. The other container, about 4 inches tall and three-quarters of an inch wide, is cylindrical and contains a reddish liquid.

Both types of vials “appear to be hermetically sealed,” said Petty Officer Eric Gallett, a pollution investigator with the Coast Guard’s Marine Environment Protection Division in Long Beach.

Coast Guard and county hazardous-materials experts examined the unusual containers Monday afternoon at Huntington State Beach. The officials handled the containers gingerly and made no effort to open them.

The containers with the floating ampuls inside seemed to cause the most concern among investigators. The hazardous-materials specialists said sometimes chemicals suspended that way become explosive if exposed to air.

Safety Sticks Used

Gaggioli said lifeguards were told to pick up the containers with safety sticks and handle them gently.

“We’re dealing with the unknown,” Gallett said. “People should not try to open any of these containers.”

“I’ve seen a lot of things wash ashore, but never anything like this,” said Smith, who has been a ranger for 15 years.

Smith said the first containers were found about 7:30 a.m. Monday at Crystal Cove State Park by lifeguards making routine inspections of the beach.

He noted that the rainstorm during the night had roughened the seas and that much debris was coming ashore.

But the unusual vials stumped him, he said: “At first I thought the stuff might be drugs. I took one of the containers to the sheriff’s office on Crown Valley Parkway, and (deputies) said they didn’t think it was any kind of drugs. So the stuff was sent to the (sheriff’s) bomb squad to be tested.”

Olson said Monday night that ultimately the Sheriff’s Department crime lab was asked to identify the chemicals.

The various regulatory officials, as they conferred Monday afternoon at Huntington State Beach, speculated that the containers might be medical waste tossed from a ship. But the health and Coast Guard officials at the scene said they had never seen any such medical items.

Lifeguards searching the Huntington State Beach area found two small, unopened bottles tentatively identified as containing antibiotic medicine. Smith and other officials said it is possible that the other, unidentified containers were also medicines dumped at sea.