Vandal in Garden Grove Releases Asphaltic Torrent

An unknown vandal opened valves on five storage tanks at a local paving company sometime early this morning, fouling an Orange County flood control channel and the surrounding area with as much as 9,000 gallons of a petroleum-based asphalt product.

Using sand dikes, local and state crews appeared to have contained the slick’s flow by noon to about a mile of the channel, from its origin near Westminster Boulevard and West Street in Garden Grove to McFadden and Brookhurst in Westminster.

But large-scale cleanup had not yet begun and officials were still trying to gauge the damage.

“It’s a mess, we know that,” said Bruce Paine, coordinating the response for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board. “We need to get some water samples to a lab to find out what the concentration of this stuff is. So as far as environmental impact, we can’t say at this point.”

State Fish and Game officials, meanwhile, were on the lookout for wildlife that might have come into contact with the heavy slick, and were particularly worried about preventing it from reaching the sensitive Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

Officials were planning this afternoon to begin large-scale skimming in the flood channel and to divert water coming from the north end of the flood channel into the local sanitation system underground, to avoid further complications.

The disaster was discovered around 3:30 a.m. by an employee arriving for work at the Seal Black paving company, at 13812 A Better Way, the origin of the spill.

Company officials said whoever opened the valves of the tanks containing the emulsified asphalt knew their way around the site. But William Green, a part owner of the firm, said “I just can’t imagine anyone doing something like this.”