Residential oil leak caused by damaged pipe

A residential street in Wilmington California, US, was affected by an oil leak on Monday (March 17th) when a small hole on a pipeline led to around 1,200 gallons of crude to be released. Crews began work to repair the broken underground pipe and to clean up the oil that started to seep up through the ground in the afternoon.

Residents on North Neptune Avenue reported that a dark liquid with a strong smell was leaking out of fissures in the paved street, resulting in a fast response by the Los Angeles City Fire Department and county Fire Department hazardous materials unit. The cause of the leak was not discovered until Tuesday (March 18th) afternoon once around 70 barrels of oil had been removed from the affected area. 

Investigation at the site revealed that the leak was coming from a pipeline owned by Phillips 66, which took over the clean up operation on Tuesday. The company had said that it was almost certain that it was not responsible for the incident but later admitted that it was to blame. According to the firm, the fault lay with one of its out-of-service pipes in the area.

A spokesperson for the company, Janet Grothe, said that an investigation would be started to look into why there was still oil present in the broken pipeline after it had been taken out of service. The pipeline was taken out of service in 1998 before it was acquired by Phillips 66.

Although complaints were received about the leaking oil, no calls reported any health issues related to it. Tests in the area reported no hazards to health, meaning that the clean up operation should be enough to contain and control the problem with no further issues.

It has been suggested that a recent earthquake in Encino may have caused the damage to the pipe and subsequent leak. The quake occurred on Monday and reached 4.4 on the Richter scale, possibly causing the small hole in the old pipeline.