Asphalt Diverted Into Sewer : Environment: Officials feared goo spilled by vandal would reach the Bolsa Chica wetlands four miles downstream.

After determining that contaminated water in a central Orange County flood control channel was not highly toxic, state and local officials Friday diverted a liquid asphalt spill into the county’s sewer system for disposal.

The action was taken as the asphalt--spilled by a vandal this week at a Garden Grove paving company--threatened to breach a makeshift dam in the channel early Friday, as trucks worked to vacuum up the spill.

Officials wanted to make sure that none of the oily, dark brown water seeped past the dam to the environmentally fragile Bolsa Chica wetlands, which are along the coast about four miles downstream.

“The Bolsa Chica is just too sensitive to gamble with this stuff,” said Gary Stewart, senior engineer for the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The marsh was no longer threatened Friday, but state fish and game officials reported dead crayfish in the spill area along a two-mile stretch of the East Garden Grove-Winterburg Flood Control Channel. Fish and game warden Jan Yost added that all microorganisms within the water had also died.

“Anything that was living in the water is now dead,” Yost said Friday, adding that there had been no reports of bird deaths.

The spill occurred at the Seal Black Co. Inc., when a vandal opened spigots on five storage tanks and unleashed the gooey, foul-smelling substance sometime between the time the plant closed Wednesday night and 3 a.m. Thursday, when it was discovered. The vandal was still being sought Friday.

State water board officials Friday downgraded their estimate of how much liquid asphalt spilled. Stewart said the latest estimate Friday was 4,000 to 8,000 gallons, in contrast with the original estimate of up to 10,000 gallons. Although no one knows exactly how much asphalt flowed into the adjoining channel, Stewart estimated that about half did.

The amount of water in the channel that needed to be cleaned up far exceeded the asphalt. Liquid asphalt is soluble in water and cannot be skimmed off the top, so work crews were faced with the daunting task of removing all water contaminated by the substance. With a two-mile stretch of the flood channel contaminated, state officials estimated that they needed to remove 120,000 gallons.

Initially, state and county officials were relying on a subcontractor, Crosby and Overton of Long Beach, to suction the contaminated water into vacuum trucks and haul it away to a disposal site. They also diverted all upstream runoff into the sewer system to try to contain the spill.

But Chris Crompton, supervisor of Orange County’s water pollution section, said the channel became bloated Thursday night, with water runoff from sprinklers, carwashes and other uncontrolled sources putting pressure on a dam near Euclid Street.

Six vacuum trucks were on the scene early Friday to try to draw down the channel before it became too high, but Stewart said it soon became apparent that the work was not proceeding quickly enough to prevent the dam from being breached.

That was when state water board officials asked the Orange County Sanitation Districts to accept the water, Stewart said. The agency began pumping the water at 4 p.m. to its Fountain Valley treatment plant. Officials there had no estimate of how long it would take to remove the water.

Corinne Clawson, spokeswoman for the Sanitation Districts, said her agency agreed only after conducting tests that verified earlier findings by the state that the contaminated water was low enough in toxicity to be treated.

The agency treats 270 million gallons of sewage daily, much of it industrial waste, Clawson said.

According to Bruce Paine, an engineering associate for the state water board, preliminary state tests Friday showed minimal concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons and other toxic substances.

“We don’t think there is an imminent threat to the environment,” Paine said.

Even so, Stewart said, officials did not want to chance letting the contaminated water flow down to the wetlands, which is home to several endangered bird species.

“There’s always the chance that we missed something,” Stewart said.

Diverting the spill through the sewer saved untold time and expense for the cleanup process, officials said. Had the water been trucked away for disposal, officials said, it would have taken up to four weeks and cost about $100,000 to clean up the mess.

Stewart on Friday said he had no estimate of when cleanup would be completed or what would be its final cost. After the channel is drained, Stewart said, workers will have to spend several days steam-cleaning rocks along the channel.

The cost of the cleanup is being shared by the state and county, with an undetermined portion also to be borne by the paving plant, Stewart said.

Seal Black officials said they also lost about $10,000 in asphalt materials. “It’s a big setback,” William Green, co-owner of the company, said sadly Friday as his workers shoveled loads of asphalt-soiled dirt and sand from his property. “It’s going to be very expensive.”