D.A. Decides Against Action in Bird’s Death

The Ventura County district attorney’s office said Friday it was “highly unlikely” that ethylene glycol dumped by the county’s Flood Control Department was responsible for the death last fall of an endangered California condor.

As a result, the district attorney has decided not to take any legal action, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregory Brose said.

Federal biologists had determined that Chocuyens, a 15-month-old condor whose body was found about six miles north of the Sespe Condor Sanctuary on Oct. 8, had died of kidney failure after ingesting ethylene glycol, a fluid used in antifreeze.

The flood control district uses ethylene glycol to keep its rain gauges, situated high in the Los Padres National Forest, from freezing. Flood control employees discarded the fluid into the soil after it was used, and federal biologists had suspected the condor could have died after drinking the fluid.

But after reviewing reports by the Ventura County Environmental Health Department, the district attorney’s office ruled there was insufficient evidence for prosecution.

Although the Flood Control Department’s dumping of the ethylene glycol was a violation of the Health and Safety Code, Brose said the liquid seeped into the ground and it was more likely that the condor drank from a pool of antifreeze. Brose said flood control officials will change their practices.