Toxic Waste Spill Snarls Highway Traffic

A truck carrying toxic waste spilled its cargo Tuesday morning in Saticoy, interrupting traffic on California 118 for most of the day while about 100 police, fire, health and Caltrans workers awaited the arrival of a cleanup crew from Los Angeles.

Personnel from a Ventura company specializing in toxic cleanups arrived at the scene within 45 minutes of the spill but were turned back by the truck driver’s company, only to be recalled four hours later to do the job.

The spill happened at Wells Road (California 118 at that point) and Telephone Road at 10:50 a.m. when the cargo bin of a Chemical Waste Management Co. truck slid off the truck bed, police said. California 118, a major east-west artery, was closed until 7:40 p.m.

The truck was carrying paint residue from the Oxnard-based GE Plastics plant to Chemical Waste’s toxic dump in Kettlemen City in central California, a spokeswoman for Chemical Waste said.

The truck was not carrying materials defined as acutely hazardous and did not pose an immediate threat to the environment, said Cathy Wimberley, spokeswoman for the company’s Fremont-based Western regional headquarters.

No injuries were reported. Police cordoned off an area within a 100-yard radius of the spill, but no one was evacuated from nearby buildings.

The driver, William Jordan, 35, told police that he was traveling at 10 to 12 m.p.h. when the bin rolled into the front cabin, then fell off. Jordan blamed the incident on metal fatigue of the joints holding the hitch to the truck, California Highway Patrol Officer Brad Olson said.

He quoted Jordan as saying he had inspected the truck early that morning before his trip began. Jordan would not comment.

For more than three hours, the crews of four firetrucks, two hazardous-waste teams and dozens of police and county officials waited for a cleanup crew. An employee of a Ventura company arrived 45 minutes after the accident and offered to do the job, but Chemical Waste picked a company from Los Angeles.

“If this were an emergency, we’d take appropriate measures to begin the cleanup,” said Richard Achee, a Ventura assistant fire chief, as his hazardous-waste team sat in folding chairs by an orange grove, around a bucketful of ice and Diet Cokes. “In this case, it’s an inconvenience for the car drivers on the freeway, but the spill does not represent a health threat.”

With rush hour looming and the highway still closed, Chemical Waste officials decided to recall the first company, Ventura Petroleum. Its employees arrived about 3 p.m. Within minutes, the L.A. company, International Technologies, arrived, and both crews began the cleanup.

Times staff writer Carol Watson contributed to this story.