Leak Spills Oil Into Creek Bed, Closes I-5

An underground pipeline connecting San Joaquin Valley oil fields with Los Angeles refineries ruptured Tuesday in southern Kern County, sending about 100,000 gallons of crude oil oozing down a creek bed and shutting down northbound lanes of the Golden State Freeway.

Officials from the California Department of Fish and Game had not fully assessed the environmental damage of the spill, one of the worst in recent years along a route followed by three other oil pipelines.

The leak was reported about 2:30 a.m. near the small community of Ft. Tejon, pouring from a welded seam on a 16-inch steel pipe owned by a subsidiary of the Atlantic Richfield Co., Arco spokesman Albert Greenstein said.

Greenstein only said that more than 1,000 barrels were spilled in the leak. A barrel is the equivalent of 42 gallons. But George Nokes, regional manager for the Department of Fish and Game, estimated that up to 125,000 gallons had gushed from the pipeline.

Oil flowed about eight miles down Grapevine Creek, which runs north beside the freeway, before earthen dams were erected by Caltrans and oil company crews to prevent it from reaching the floor of the San Joaquin Valley. Arco is expected to pay for cleanup work supervised by state officials.

Northbound lanes of the freeway were shut down immediately after the leak was discovered about a mile north of the Ft. Tejon off-ramp. Traffic was rerouted on the Antelope Valley Freeway and California 58 through Palmdale and over the Tehachapi Pass into Bakersfield.

Two lanes of the freeway were reopened late Tuesday afternoon. The other two lanes probably will remain closed until the weekend as crews work to clean up oil from the creek and repair the pipeline, Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli said.

The pipeline, built in 1950 and capable of carrying 2.9 million gallons of oil a day, has no history of leaks or other problems, said Jim Wait, chief of the state’s pipeline safety division.

The line is one of two owned by an Arco subsidiary, Four Corners Pipe Line Co., that connect Kern County oil fields and South Bay refineries. The other line was also shut down after the leak, but was expected to be put back in service Tuesday night, Greenstein said.

Arco’s pipes follow roughly the same route as two other lines, including an aging pipeline owned by Mobil Oil Corp., which has been plagued by leaks. Mobil’s pipeline spilled 74,634 gallons of oil into the Santa Clara River in Valencia in January, 1991; 132,000 gallons in Encino in September, 1988, and 105,000 gallons in Lebec in June, 1987.

The spill was on land owned by Caltrans and the Tejon Ranch Co., which is 25% owned by the Times Mirror Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times.

Freeway Trouble

An oil leak next to Interstate 5 in southern Kern County forced the temporary closure of the northbound lanes of the freeway. The spill occured about a mile north of the Ft. Tejon offramp.