OXNARD : City Won’t Punish Southern Pacific

Southern Pacific Transportation Co. will not be punished for failing to promptly notify the city of Oxnard after a spill of 250 gallons of diesel fuel in Oxnard, a city fire inspector said Wednesday.

The company did notify the appropriate state officials after the accident Monday and quickly cleaned up the spill, Oxnard Fire Inspector Brad Windsor said.

Windsor said a refrigerator car tipped over after a collision in the 5th Street rail yard about 7 p.m. Monday, but the spill from a diesel fuel tank was not noticed until 10 p.m.

The fuel leaked from a ruptured 500-gallon tank used to power the car’s refrigerator unit, said Bill Farrens, who manages Southern Pacific’s field operations in the Oxnard area. The car carried frozen meat, he said.

Informed of the spill that night, officials at Southern Pacific’s environmental center in Denver contacted the California Office of Emergency Services at 3:35 a.m. Tuesday, Windsor said. But the company did not contact Oxnard as the city’s fire code requires until 2 p.m. Tuesday, he said.

Farrens blamed the failure to notify the city on “a communications breakdown,” and said it is the company’s policy to adhere to all notification requirements. Southern Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney said the company has not completed a review of the incident and does not yet know the reason for the delay.

Windsor said Southern Pacific officials may have been unaware of the requirement. “The department is satisfied with their reaction,” Windsor said, adding that the company’s actions did not appear malicious.

Cleanup of the spill was made easier because of large puddles left by recent rains, Farrens said. Trucks pumped out the fuel-contaminated water and hauled away contaminated soil, he said.