SOLIMAR BEACH : Crude Oil Spills at Conoco Plant

Workers at an oil production plant spent most of Monday cleaning up 2,500 gallons of crude oil that spilled from a broken pipe and briefly fouled a portion of Solimar Beach.

The spill at the Conoco Inc. facilities released most of the oil into a catch basin on the property, but about 25 gallons flowed down a barranca and onto sand at Solimar, said Janet Smith, a spokeswoman for Houston-based Conoco. A few gallons entered the water, but washed back on shore because of wave action, Smith said.

All of the spilled oil was removed from the beach, which is northwest of Ventura, and nearby barranca by late Monday afternoon, she said. The amount of the spill was so small that there should no environmental aftereffects, Smith said.

Ventura County fire officials were called to investigate the spill, which was discovered at 7:15 a.m., but authorities left when it appeared that there was no threat to humans or wildlife, said Vicki Crabtree, a dispatcher with the County Fire Department.

Conoco officials won’t determine the cause of the break for several days while they continue to clean up the oil remaining on the plant’s property, Smith said.

“Once we know what happened, we will have some ideas as to how we can prevent this from happening in the future,” she said.

Conoco has oil leases and production plants worldwide, Smith said. The Solimar Beach lease includes 120 wells and is the only one owned by the company in Ventura County, she said.