Rockwell Sued Over ’96 Chemical Spill in Creek

Prosecutors filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing Rockwell International Corp. of breaking the law with a 1996 chemical spill and failing to report it to the state for two weeks.

Workers at the Rockwell Science Center research lab in Thousand Oaks were responsible for the illegal flow of 49,300 gallons of an ethylene-glycol solution--a fluid similar to antifreeze--into Arroyo Conejo, part of a network of creeks that lead to Calleguas Creek, Mugu Lagoon and finally to the ocean, the lawsuit alleges.

Lawyers with the Ventura County district attorney’s Consumer and Environmental Protection Division also charged Rockwell with failing to immediately report the spill to the state Office of Emergency Services.

The company notified the state Jan. 7, 1997, 13 days after the spill occurred on Christmas Day 1996, Deputy Dist. Atty. Laurel McLaughlin said.

Rockwell officials did make immediate calls to the U. S. Coast Guard, Ventura County Department of Environmental Health, city of Thousand Oaks and Ventura County Fire Department, McLaughlin said. But a call to the proper agency would have triggered a series of emergency responses appropriate for such an incident, she said.

“It is our theory that Fish and Game was delayed in getting out there and that made it difficult for them to assess impacts to fish and wildlife,” McLaughlin said. After two weeks, “any animals that may have died probably washed down the creek and out to the ocean.”

The spill was caused by two valves that malfunctioned during maintenance work on air-conditioning systems at the 35-year-old research lab on Camino Dos Rios.

It contaminated waters that most recently were soiled by an 86-million-gallon sewage spill that has prompted a federal criminal probe targeting the city of Thousand Oaks.

McLaughlin declined to say why prosecutors decided to file a civil suit instead of pursuing criminal charges. The suit asks for the maximum fine of $25,000 for the spill, which violated the Fish and Game code, and $32,500 for not notifying the proper authorities, which violated the Business and Professions Code.

It also seeks a court order requiring Rockwell to reimburse government agencies for cleanup costs and attorney fees related to the suit.

Rockwell officials would not answer questions about the lawsuit, filed in Ventura County Superior Court, but released a statement describing the accident and contending that because the creeks were full of water at the time, “the released ethylene glycol was quickly diluted, and it is our understanding that no harm was caused.”

Hector Orozco, a warden with the office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response in the state Department of Fish and Game, agreed that the spill was diluted by creek and rainwaters.

“It made less of an impact, but it was still a violation of the code,” he said.

At certain concentrations, the toxic chemical can kill fish, plants and birds, and cause kidney failure in mammals, Orozco said.

On the night of the spill, Point Mugu Navy base firefighters inspected the Mugu Lagoon area and banks along Calleguas Creek, which empties into the lagoon, and found no dead birds or fish, said Tom Keeney, base ecologist.

“We found no effect of the ethylene glycol,” Keeney said. “We believe it dissipated after traveling 20 miles downstream to us. Now the upper reaches might be a different story.”

At least one Ventura County environmental activist cheered the district attorney’s office for taking legal action against Rockwell, saying prosecutors should take a hard look at every spill in the county.

“These spills are starting to become commonplace in Ventura County. It seems hardly a week goes by without some dangerous spill that is explained away as ‘one in a million’ or ‘an act of God,’ ” said Al Sanders, conservation chairman of the Los Padres chapter of the Sierra Club.

“When you put them all together, it is devastating to the environment. Our creeks have enough problems with intentional discharges, such as agricultural runoff, without being subjected to raw sewage, chemicals, and oil.”

Rockwell attorneys have 30 days to respond to the district attorney’s complaint.