EARTHQUAKE: THE LONG ROAD BACK : Emergency Crews Rush to Repair Toxic Leaks : Hazards: Workers near Van Nuys Airport are evacuated as teams drain liquid propane from leaky pipes at Kaiser Marquardt plant. Asbestos cleanups at courthouses begin.

Authorities scrambled Thursday to cope with a rash of hazardous materials incidents following the massive earthquake that shook asbestos from building fixtures and rocked fuel and chemical tanks.

In Van Nuys, about 600 workers were evacuated from businesses next to Van Nuys Airport as Fire Department hazardous materials teams began draining explosive liquid propane from leaky piping at the Kaiser Marquardt plant on Saticoy Street at Hayvenhurst Avenue.

The propane leak, discovered before 8 a.m. Thursday, was from piping connecting three 30,000-gallon storage tanks, each believed to be about half full of propane. The quake or aftershocks apparently caused the giant tanks to shift in their saddles, rupturing the pipe, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Bob Collis.

Emergency crews were using a 6,000-gallon tanker truck to drain the explosive fuel, said Collis, who said he thought that the operation would last at least until Friday night.

Airport officials said the episode did not affect airport operations, but police closed off sections of nearby streets, and employees of several businesses were sent home.

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At county courthouses in Van Nuys, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica--where structural safety inspections are required before the buildings can reopen--county officials were forced to delay the inspections to clean up asbestos loosened by the shaker.

At Van Nuys Superior Court, contractors hired by the county were cleaning up asbestos fire-proofing material that fell from ceiling beams, said Jan Pollard, spokeswoman for Los Angeles County’s Internal Services Department. Pollard had no estimate of the cost of the cleanup, which will be followed by air testing before the building’s structural integrity can be assessed sometime next week.

Pollard said asbestos cleanups are also under way at the courts in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

State environmental officials, surveying area businesses for quake-related hazardous waste leaks, said Thursday that they have encountered only minor problems so far.

Rich Varenchik, spokesman for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, said department officials are canvassing businesses with hazardous waste permits within 25 miles of the epicenter to check for quake-related problems.

Of 288 businesses reached by phone by Thursday afternoon, 244 reported no problems while 44 reported minor damage to waste storage areas or small leaks or spills, Varenchik said.

About 40 others could not be reached, and Varenchik said agency staff members were fanning out to visit those sites in person.

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Asked if companies would be tempted to understate their problems, Varenchik said, “We don’t have the manpower to send people out to every one of these places, so you’ve sort of got to take people on their honor.”

Varenchik also said agency staff have begun to assist local building inspectors, accompanying them to damaged buildings to look for problems with hazardous chemicals or asbestos.

Meanwhile, cleanup crews Thursday continued siphoning oil from the Santa Clara River, stained by sticky crude from a pipeline broken by the quake. An estimated 3,500 to 4,000 barrels of crude leaked from the pipeline, most of it reaching the river in Santa Clarita and spreading downstream about 12 to 15 miles into Ventura County. Officials estimated that 1,600 barrels had been sucked from the river by Thursday.