On the morning of March 20, 2008 while walking the drainage for the Greka UCAL Road Spill (www.epaosc.net/Greka_UCAL-RD) when the START discovered another spill. This spill was on a hillside adjacent to UCAL Lease Well #98. The spill was from a subteranean pipeline. The oil had pooled in an excavated area on the hillside. The oil migrated down the hillside and into a ravine. The oil stopped approximately 10' before the creek. According to the landowner, that creek flows to Bradley Canyon Creek, which flows to the Santa Maria River. Greka placed dams at the connection with the creek to prevent migration into the creek.
EPA notified Greka of the spill. Greka responded and began to excavate the source of the spill. They uncovered an old pipe manifold approximately 3' bgs, but that was not the source.
Due to the strong smell of field gas, the Santa Barbara Co. Fire Department was called out twice to do monitoring because Greka could not find the source. Niether the Fire Department or Greka had a FID that could detect subpercentage levels of field gas. OSC Wise after talking to the Region 9 Duty Officer dispatched the Ecology and Environment Region 10 START crossover on-call team to the site with FIDs to do monitoring. Once they were on-site, monitoring indicated levels of unknown VOCs of up to 46 ppm. Based on the EPA policy of >5ppm unknown VOCs requires level C, EPA required Greka to upgrade to level C. START will continue monitoring for the regulatory agency personnel on-site doing oversight including the EPA, the Fire Department, START, PST and Santa Barbara County Petroleum Office.
The source ofthe spill was a small pipe from UCAL 41 that contained drip gas. The pipe was closed off and drained. The all of the contamiantion in the hole was excavated as well as the contamination that escaped down the slope of the hill towards the creek. As of March 31, 2008, the cleanup was completed.
