Mobil Says Oil Cleanup Will Take 3 Weeks

Mobil Oil Corp. officials said Monday that it will take about three weeks to clean up oil residue in Bull Creek, where an estimated 67,000 gallons of oil-tainted water spilled when an underground pipeline in Granada Hills burst during high-pressure testing.

The spill, which Mobil said was a mixture of 1% crude oil and 99% water, occurred Saturday and left black, sticky residue along many sections of a four-mile stretch of the concrete drainage creek that empties into the Sepulveda Basin.

Mobil crews that were on standby during the pipeline test quickly placed oil absorbing booms across the creek in several locations.

The state Department of Fish and Game will monitor the oil cleanup, said Capt. Roger Reese. He said no wildlife was reported harmed by the spill, and it appears that very little of the oily water flowed past the containment booms into dirt-bottomed sections of the creek.

Game Warden Shelly Walker said she has found only one oil blotch in the environmentally sensitive basin.

“Things are in good shape,” Reese said. “It was a mixture of mostly water and some oil, and they were able to contain it quickly.”

Fish and Game officials will investigate the incident before deciding whether to seek fines or charges against Mobil, Reese said.

The state fire marshal’s office, which regulates underground pipelines, will also investigate the spill. It is the third time since September, 1988, that a large amount of oil or oil-tainted water has spilled from the pipeline in the San Fernando Valley.

The spill occurred during hydrostatic testing of a 30-year-old section of the pipe that runs from the Bakersfield area to a refinery in Torrance. During the test, oil is flushed from the pipe and then replaced with water at high pressure.

The test reveals weaknesses in the pipeline, said Tim Salles, operations manager of the pipeline. A section of the pipe burst beneath the intersection of Midwood Drive and Gerald Avenue and the oil-tainted water spilled into nearby drainage culverts that carried it to Bull Creek. Salles estimated that the water contained about four barrels of oil.

While booms and absorbing pads soaked up oil in the creek, several work crews continued Monday to pump the oil into storage trucks and clean the concrete drainage channel with high pressure water hoses. Mobil spokesman James A. Carbonetti said the cleanup crews will continue working in the creek for at least three weeks.

The two previous spills from the pipeline occurred on Sept. 10, 1988, in Encino and Sept. 27, 1988, in Sherman Oaks. About 130,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Los Angeles sewer system, disrupted traffic and access to a neighborhood, and killed two dozen birds in the Los Angeles River Channel marshes.

Mobil spent more than $3 million on cleanup costs and paid $204,602 to owners of damaged property. The company was fined $89,500 and the company officials pleaded no contest to two counts of unlawfully allowing oil to be dumped into state waters.

Mobil has proposed replacing the aging 75-mile pipeline with a state-of-the-art line that would enable the company to better monitor it for weaknesses and leaks. The proposal has met with some resistance from residents who fear increased pollution as well as traffic congestion during the two-year construction project. State officials are conducting an environmental study of the proposal.

“This is one of the reasons we want to replace that line,” Carbonetti said of the latest oil spill and cleanup.