An extensive cleanup

Jenny Marder

Crews are scrambling to clean hundreds of homes and cars that were

sprayed with oil as it rained a greasy mist onto a neighborhood in

Southeast Huntington Beach.

“It’s like tar on your feet from the beach,” said Nancy Buchoz,

whose house on Rhodesia Drive flanks Magnolia Street, where an oil

pipe burst last week, gushing crude oil 40 feet into the air.

Since the idle well erupted just before 6 a.m. on March 17,

gushing out some 1,700 gallons of oil, about 87 homeowners have filed

claims.

The oil rained down for hours, dotting houses, cars, potted

plants, lawns and patio furniture with a sticky film of grease.

A buildup of underground pressure caused a pipe to burst, said

Fire Chief Duane Olson. The 3,800-foot well, which sits near Magnolia

Street and Hamilton Avenue, was drilled in 1946 but has been idle for

about three years.

Agencies involved in the investigation and cleanup include the

Huntington Beach police and fire departments, the Public Works

Hazardous Materials Team, the state Division of Oil and Gas, the U.S.

Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Game and the

Orange County Health Care Agency.

Landowner Cannery Hamilton Properties LLC, jointly owned by

Chevron Texaco and Conoco-Phillips, has stepped up to manage and fund

the residential cleanup, which is expected to cost about $650,000,

said Mary Urashima, spokesperson for Cannery Hamilton Properties. The

company has mobilized 92 people to assist with cleanup and

investigation of the site. The group is working out of a temporary

emergency response area, located at the Edison Community Center.

The well itself is owned by Krik Company, which could ultimately

be held liable for the cleanup, said Robert Wise, federal on-scene

coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Claim adjustors have been visiting homes to assess property

damage. About $167,000 worth of residential claims have already been

filed.

“Some are as simple as ‘I want my car detailed,’” Urashima said.

“Some need to have the exterior of their house cleaned or patio

furniture cleaned and replaced.”

A deadline for claims won’t be set until Cannery Hamilton

officials are certain everyone has had a chance to file.

“We would rather err on the side of caution,” Urashima said.

Crews have been working all week to steam-clean streets, driveways

and walkways. Lawn crews are mowing lawns and removing oily grass

clippings, treating plants and power-washing houses. At some houses,

contractors are being sent out to clean carpets and upholstery where

oil has been tracked in by pets. At some, patio furniture and

children’s toys are being replaced. Of 16 pools inspected, 11 have

already been cleaned.

“Whatever they’re bringing to us, we’re finding a way to handle,”

Urashima said.

Buchoz’s house was one of the most severely impacted, and while

crews have sent workers to power-clean her house and yard, they’ve

failed to remove the oil.

“Unfortunately the oil is sort of saturated in the ground,” she

said. “They’ve tried hard to steam-clean it. On the ground

especially, it wouldn’t come up. It’s permeated inside like a sponge.

They’ve sent worker bees out and they keep telling us all of these

great things, but as it stands right now, the steam cleaning isn’t

working.”

Gail Swanson, who lives five houses down from Buchoz, is having

better luck.

Workers have already steam-cleaned her driveway, front walk and

entryway and hand-cleaned all the bricks that line her pool.

“What they have said is, ‘we want to take care of you, we want you

to be happy with your property, please tell us what it is you want us

to do’,” Swanson said of Cannery Hamilton officials.

Air quality is being monitored by the Environmental Protection

Agency, the Orange County Health Care Agency and Cannery Hamilton

contractors.

Dave Dixon, a hazardous waste specialist from the Orange County

Health Care Agency, is confident that the oil poses no health risk to

air quality.

“We’re not worried about any toxic effect, at least up until this

point,” he said.

Air quality monitors, which test for “virtually everything under

the sun,” Dixon said, have been set up at the well site and

throughout the neighborhood. Nothing harmful has been detected, he

said.

Toxins of the greatest concern are hydrogen sulfide and benzene.

Scientists haven’t picked up any readings of hydrogen sulfide.

Benzene was detected in low levels in the eight hours after the

spill, but Dixon said the levels were too slight to trigger any

concern. People are more exposed to benzene when filling their cars

up with gas than they have been at any time since the spill, he said.

Officials from the Department of Oil and Gas are in the process of

plugging and abandoning the well and cleaning and cutting the

discolored trees and vegetation that surround it. Abandonment

involves pulling out internal piping and equipment from the well and

then plugging it up with concrete.

“The well and the problem itself has been capped off and sealed

and there’s no continued source for those gases we’re worried about,”

Dixon said.

An area near the well has been fenced off to protect a duck that

laid eggs in a patch of oily ice plants.

No wildlife impacts or injuries have been reported.

A satellite emergency center has been set up at the Edison

Community Center, at Magnolia Street and Hamilton Avenue. Residents

with questions can call the center’s hotline at (800) 766-6362. A

public meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Officials from

the agencies involved will provide additional information and give

progress reports.

“We’re addressing not only concerns at the well site, but concerns

also in the neighborhood,” Urashima said. “People have been working

throughout the weekend to make things right for the residents.”

* JENNY MARDER covers City Hall. She can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at jenny.marder@latimes.com.