Spill Closes Harbor Lake

A large quantity of toxic material, believed to be latex paint, has been illegally dumped into Machado Lake at Harbor Regional Park in Wilmington, forcing the closure of the popular lake indefinitely, Los Angeles city and county officials said late Wednesday.

“We’ve closed the lake. And we’re not going to open it until we’re sure it’s safe for the public to use it,” said Jane Rasco, assistant general manager of the city Recreation and Parks Department.

Officials said Wednesday that they do not know who contaminated the lake or how long its cleanup will take.

“It’s obviously vandalism, but we don’t know who’s responsible,” Rasco said.

The 230-acre park, one of the largest in the city of Los Angeles, is bounded by Anaheim Street, Vermont and Normandie avenues and Pacific Coast Highway.

The toxic material was discovered around noon Tuesday when maintenance crews noticed a heavy film on the lake’s surface and notified authorities, Rasco said.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health issued a warning to park officials, who placed signs around the lake Wednesday. In addition, park officials said they have indefinitely postponed several summer activities at the lake, including a camp program for inner-city youths that includes canoeing and fishing.

City officials said they first thought that the lake’s surface was covered by a harmless dye commonly used by refineries to inspect underground utility lines for leaks. The dye, they speculated, might have run into the lake from storm drains.

But that theory was dispelled when the material covering the lake was inspected late Tuesday afternoon by a hazardous materials team that included officials from the county health department.

Samir Ibrahim, a hazardous materials specialist with the department, said the team found two fish on the banks of the lake that were believed to have been killed by the material.

Subsequent tests of the water, Ibrahim said, showed Wednesday that it did not contain detectable levels of heavy metals such as chromium. But he said that finding does not mean that the lake is safe.

“Just because it doesn’t have metals doesn’t mean it isn’t hazardous,” Ibrahim said. “Until the cleanup is done, no one should fish in that lake. No one should go in it because we really can’t take a chance of poisoning anyone.”

The size of the spill was as uncertain as the material spilled, but Rasco estimated that 50 gallons or more were dumped into the lake, probably between sunset Monday and sunrise Tuesday.

“We’re very upset that somebody would vandalize the park like this,” Rasco said. “We’ve had spills in the lake before, but nothing this large.”

She added: “Nobody even has a guess right now on who did it or exactly when it was dumped. All we know is that somebody must have thought it was a good place to dump the stuff, and they were wrong.”