Cleanup of Contaminated Soil Begins in River Bottom : Accident: Officials stress need to move fast before rains come. Work stemming from the gas truck explosion could cost $500,000.

Nearly two dozen workers scrambled Tuesday to excavate and purify 3,000 tons of gasoline-soaked soil left in the Ventura River bottom by last weekend’s fiery crash of a tanker truck.

“Everyone involved agrees that we need to move quickly before the rains come,” said Greg Smith, a specialist with the county Environmental Health Department, which is helping to evaluate the site. “Water flowing through the site could flush contaminants to the ocean.”

The cleanup is expected to take two or three weeks and cost upward of $500,000, according to Ronald J. Flury, a contractor in charge of earthmoving.

Saturday’s inferno on a ramp connecting California 33 to the Ventura Freeway killed truck driver Carlos Humberto Alonzo Jr. of Oxnard, whose rig carrying 8,750 gallons of unleaded fuel jackknifed. The tanker plummeted off the ramp and burst into flames on the river bottom, saturating the soil with gas.

Authorities believe that the crash was caused by speeding. Court records show that Alonzo was ticketed for reckless driving in September--a fact company officials say the driver concealed from them when he was hired shortly afterward.

Atlas Bulk Carriers, the Los Angeles company that owned the tanker and is paying for the cleanup, has hired three independent contractors to repair the environmentally sensitive river bottom.

Flury, one of the contractors, put 20 men and three bulldozers to work Tuesday moving what will amount to 2,000 square yards of “dirty” dirt so that it can be “cleaned.”

“It’s an oxymoron, when you think about it,” Flury said. “Clean or not, I still wouldn’t eat a mud pie.”

Although drivers whizzing by can see little evidence of Saturday’s explosion, there’s no mistaking it down below in what was once a popular campsite for the region’s homeless.

The concrete overpass supports are charred black, and the air is swollen with a sickly gasoline odor.

One portion of the riverbed is so thick with gas fumes that workers will wear breathing apparatus when moving the soil.

Flury’s workers are digging down 20 feet to remove what they hope is the deepest point of contamination. Unlike crude oil, refined gasoline quickly penetrates soil, he said.

The mountain of unearthed soil will then be laced with piping that collects gas vapor.

“It works kind of like a catalytic converter,” Flury said. “And it’s a lot cheaper than lugging it all to a recycler or a landfill.”

While the dirt sits around purifying for a week, workers will start steam-cleaning thousands of rocks exposed to the gasoline.

The blackened concrete supports will be scoured by high-pressure water hoses.

Atlas is taking bids for bridge repair, including patching the supports and replacing broken aluminum guardrails, company President Brad Johansson said.

Brush contaminated with the fuel has already been removed and taken to a hazardous materials landfill in Bakersfield, Flury said.

After the cleanup is approved by the California Department of Fish and Game, the soil and rocks will be put back in place.

Many of those involved in the cleanup said the spill could have been much worse.

“Much of the gas burned up and the rest of the site is contained,” Flury said.