6,000 Gallons of Oil Spill Onto Valencia Golf Course

A ruptured pipeline sent an estimated 6,000 gallons of crude oil oozing from beneath a Valencia golf course and into the Santa Clara river early this morning, authorities said.

The rupture occurred along a Mobil Oil pipeline, which carries crude oil from Kern County oil fields to a Torrance refinery. It was found by Mobil about 1 a.m. near Tourney Road inside the Valencia Golf Course south of Magic Mountain Road.

Mobil did not know this morning what caused the rupture. Other breaks in recent years have been caused by corrosion of aging pipe sections. Mobil is in the process of seeking government approval to replace the 92-mile pipeline with a safer high-tech system.

Today’s rupture is the seventh significant leak from the Mobil pipeline in six years. In 1988, two ruptures three weeks apart in Sherman Oaks and Encino spilled more than 130,000 gallons of crude oil into city sewers. Mobil has spent more than $3.2 million in clean-up costs, damages to property and fines to government agencies.

Tim Salles, a Mobil pipeline operations manager, said the company detected a drop in pressure in the pipeline about 11:30 p.m. Thursday and shut down the flow. The exact location of the rupture and spill was not found until 12:50 a.m. today. Los Angeles County Fire and Sheriff’s departments were notified at about the same time residents began reporting the smell of natural gas.