Crews Mop Up After Fuel Spill

VENTURA — A gasoline spill from a tanker truck closed westbound California 126 for more than four hours Tuesday, as cleanup crews scrambled to contain the toxic mess that streamed into storm drains on the way to the Santa Clara River.

An estimated 2,000 gallons of unleaded fuel spilled from the big rig about 3 a.m. Tuesday after the truck hit the corner of a Chevron gas station building at Telegraph and Kimball roads.

The crash tore a fist-sized hole in the tanker truck, draining about half of its fuel, said Ventura Fire Battalion Chief Rick Achee.

Firefighters sprayed white foam over the spill to limit gas fumes and reduce the danger of fire.

Work crews then set up three small dams of dirt and sandbags to try to contain the spill, as it traveled a circuitous 2 1/2-mile route through storm drains and drainage ditches into a barranca that drains into the Santa Clara River.

“The worry is that someone going out to get their paper and to have a smoke might ignite the fumes,” said Ventura Fire Capt. Don McPherson, during the early morning hours of the cleanup.

McPherson and his crew set up an earthen dam at a drainage ditch along California 126 near Lakewood Avenue. The westbound lanes of the highway were closed for about four hours with traffic being diverted around the spill scene.

The CHP opened a single lane to traffic about 9 a.m. and the whole highway was open by noon.

A truck equipped with a large siphon skimmed the light sheen of fuel on top of the water.

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The Fire Department estimated that 80% of the spilled fuel was picked up before it entered the underground storm drains that run under the highway and down Petit Avenue.

“The problem is once this stuff gets into these drainage canals and underground storm drains it’s really hard to track,” McPherson said.

Crews from the county Public Works Department brought maps of the drainage systems throughout the eastern Ventura neighborhood, helping crews set up a strategy for containment.

Another dam and skimmer were positioned at a storm drain on Petit Avenue near North Bank Drive and the third dam and skimmer was set up in the Clark Barranca that drains into the Santa Clara River.

Along with the Ventura Fire Department, there were hazardous materials crews from the Ventura County Fire Department and the Port Hueneme Naval Construction Battalion Fire Department.

Representatives of the California Department of Fish and Game and the Ventura County Environmental Health Department were also on the scene. Chevron also brought in a private company that specializes in fuel spill cleanup.

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Ken Wilson, an environmental specialist with Fish and Game, was on hand to make sure that none of the fuel flowed into the Santa Clara River--which provides habitat to a number of protected seabirds and other wildlife.

“Fortunately, we’ve been able to stop that from happening,” Wilson said.

But some of the fuel mixed with foam did make it into a 50-yard section of a tree-lined barranca off Petit Avenue.

“I’m a little worried about the frogs,” Wilson said, pointing to a small frog that ducked underwater making a trail through the foam-fuel mixture. “I don’t think they can breathe in that stuff.”

The frogs, known as “clawed frogs,” are a nonnative species of frogs originally from Africa, he said.

Workers managed to finish most of the cleanup by 3 p.m., as the rain held off during the first critical hours. Officials estimate that it will take until late today or Thursday before crews can clean the barranca and mop up the remaining 200 to 300 gallons of fuel.

An earthen dam set up in the barranca was built high enough by late Tuesday to handle rainfall runoff that might mix with the fuel, said Ventura Fire Battalion Chief Mike Lavery.

“They’ll be siphoning off the fuel from the top of the water and it could take awhile for the rest of the fuel to be flushed from the drainage canal,” Lavery said.

There were no estimates on the cost of the cleanup, he said.