West Los Angeles : Oxy Fined for Vapor Leak

A subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp. has been fined $2,350 and ordered to contribute $25,000 to energy research in connection with the release of noxious odors at a West Los Angeles facility last year, Deputy City Atty. Donald Kass said Tuesday.

A Municipal Court commissioner imposed the penalties on Oxy USA Inc. after its attorneys pleaded no contest Feb. 1 to one count of releasing an air contaminant, a violation of the state health and safety code, Kass said.

The odors were caused last June 27 by the release of hydrogen sulfide and other vapors while a pipeline was being cleaned at an Oxy facility at 9151 Pico Blvd., Kass said. He said the eight-inch pipeline carries gas from the Oxy facility to a Southern California Gas Co. plant in Rancho Park.

Although the vapors released last June could potentially cause respiratory damage and even death in strong enough doses, the dosage that leaked out was small, and no one was reported injured, Kass said.

The city attorney’s office filed a criminal complaint against Oxy, however, after 15 residents complained about the odors, and officials from the Southern California Air Quality Management District found that Oxy had failed to contain waste from the pipeline in an enclosed tank and employ air pollution measures, Kass said.

Oxy will contribute the $25,000 to the AQMD’s Clean Fuels Revenue Account, which is used to fund research into alternatives to fossil fuels, Kass said.