Anheuser-Busch Faces $55,000 Penalty for Spills into Haskell Creek

A state water quality agency is seeking a civil penalty of $55,000 from Anheuser-Busch for two chemical spills in January and February that flowed from Haskell Creek into the Sepulveda Basin wildlife area, officials said Friday.

State officials and lawyers for Anheuser-Busch are trying to negotiate a settlement of an administrative complaint filed against the firm last month by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, said Robert P. Ghirelli, executive officer for the agency’s Los Angeles region.

Ghirelli said he expects a resolution by July 20, when the case is scheduled for review by the water quality agency’s policy-making board.

Ghirelli said a settlement potentially could require the giant brewery to fund environmental enhancement of the wildlife area instead of, or in addition to, a penalty payment.

If this is done, “the money stays here in the basin” and “improves the environment, rather than going to Sacramento,” Ghirelli said.

However, Anheuser-Busch was understood to be seeking a global settlement of the administrative complaint and of a possible criminal action by the Los Angeles district attorney.

The state Department of Fish and Game referred the spills for criminal prosecution, as it usually does in such cases.

Earl Burke, manager of the brewery in the 15800 block of Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys, said Friday he did not know the status of settlement talks. An Anheuser-Busch attorney could not be reached for comment.

A cleaning solution of water and sodium hydroxide, a caustic chemical, poured from the brewery into Haskell Creek on Jan. 27 and again on Feb. 23-24, eventually reaching the 108-acre wildlife area about 2 1/2 miles downstream.

About 11,400 gallons of the solution were spilled in the two incidents, and a small fish kill resulted from the second one, according to the complaint.

These spills “were due to negligence on the part of the Anheuser-Busch staff,” the complaint said. They “could have been prevented if Anheuser-Busch staff had better response and containment measures.”

Following both incidents, cleanup crews hired by the company removed hundreds of thousands of gallons of water from the creek in an effort to keep the highly alkaline solution out of the wildlife area.

Using a formula based on the duration and volume of spills, the complaint said Anheuser-Busch could be ordered to pay up to $124,000.

In proposing a penalty of $55,000, the complaint said that the regional board staff “has taken into consideration that cleanup efforts did result in the recovery of some of the caustic soda and that there is no known prior history” of spills.

Any settlement would have to be ratified by the agency’s decision-making board when it meets July 20.