Garden Grove City Council Meets on Oil Spill Liability

Acknowledging that Garden Grove may be held liable for an oil spill that contaminated the Bolsa Chica wetlands, City Council members met in closed session this week to discuss the incident.

State and federal investigators say 200 to 300 gallons of waste oil was found Dec. 13 in a flood channel that feeds into Bolsa Chica, one of the largest and best-known coastal wetlands in the region.

Although authorities have yet to determine who dumped the oil, investigators tracked the spill to a municipal yard in Garden Grove. City officials said the oil apparently came from a holding tank that was not designed for it.

City officials say the culprit was an illegal “midnight dumper” who sneaked onto city property.

But the Garden Grove City Council discussed the spill behind closed doors Tuesday night under a provision of the state open-meetings law that allows secret discussion of pending litigation.

City Manager George Tindall on Wednesday said no litigation is pending. But “there is potential liability that could lead to litigation to the city because it happened on city-owned property,” he said. “Even though no one has threatened to sue, we are covering all our bases.”

Tindall said Garden Grove police have reviewed five videotapes from surveillance cameras inside the yard and have turned them over to federal investigators. He declined to say what was on the tapes.