California IN BRIEF : VENTURA : Spilled Waste May Have Killed Condor

Oily wastes dumped from remote rain gauges by Ventura County employees may have killed an endangered California condor last year, authorities said. County flood control officials acknowledged that for three decades they have routinely poured a mixture of oil and antifreeze from the gauges onto the ground in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in Los Padres National Forest. The concoction is used to keep rain collected in the gauges from freezing or evaporating. Federal biologists said the toxic mixture could have killed 15-month-old Chocuyens, one of two young condors released into the wild in January, 1992.