East Los Angeles ruptured pipeline sends thousands of gallons of oil into streets, LA River
Thousands of gallons of petroleum oil leaked from a ruptured pipeline in East Los Angeles on Friday morning, flooding city streets and seeping into the Los Angeles River.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department said someone called around 3:20 a.m., saying they were doing drilling work near Cesar Chavez Avenue when they struck a petroleum line that runs from Kern County to the Port of Los Angeles.
Oil quickly began rushing into the street. Another crew working nearby, installing a fiber optic cable, 10 feet underground, also noticed the oil seeping in from the sidewalk. It ruptured in two places, firefighters said.
Los Angeles County officials estimated that as much as 2,400 gallons may have leaked from the pipeline in the 30 minutes it took crews to turn off the valve upon noticing the leak. Cleanup crews were utilizing absorbent sand to soak up the oil and sweep it into bags. They said they would pressure wash the remaining mess.
"Unfortunately, it's not something we're surprised by what happened," said LACoFD Public Information Officer Jonathan Torres. "It tends to happen, unfortunately. We're putting in subterranean utilities, so this does happen. It's an accident, we understand. Now it's just a matter of remediating the spill."
The California Highway Patrol issued a Sig Alert between Cesar Chavez and Eastern Avenue. The closer is expected to remain for several hours.
Plains West Coast Pipeline, the owner of the pipe, says its crews responded to the scene after one of its underground lines was allegedly struck by an unaffiliated contractor installing the high-speed cable.
"Our current priorities are to ensure the safety of first responders, the public and personnel on-site and minimize any impacts to the environment," the company said. "We will continue to work closely with the appropriate regulatory agencies as we respond to this incident."
California Department of Fish & Wildlife officials told CBS LA that they had activated their Oiled Wildlife Care Network, despite not having received any reports of wildlife interacting with oil as of Friday afternoon.
"They're out on the scene right now, monitoring for oiled wildlife," said CDFW spokesman Eric Laughlin. "We haven't seen any yet, but they are there in case we do. There are birds that come in and out of the river, and so we want to make sure that if we do see any, we have people that are on site to rescue them."
Crews were on scene in Vernon and Norwalk as they tried to contain the oil before it could continue flowing downstream.
LA County firefighters said that despite the lingering smell hanging over East Los Angeles, they did not believe that there were any immediate heath concerns from the leak. The South Coast Air Quality Management District was testing the air quality.
