Oil Spill Traced to Apartment Complex Filter

An oil spill that polluted Ballona Creek and threatened Santa Monica Bay this week has been traced to an underground filtering device at an apartment complex near the La Brea Tar Pits--a discovery that investigators said Thursday could cost the building’s owner up to $600,000 in fines.

As crews continued to clean up the creek and treat birds injured by the oil, U.S. Coast Guard officials said the discharge occurred when an oil and water separator at the building leaked 500 gallons of oily water and tar into a nearby storm drain. Such separators collect and filter naturally occurring oil in the ground and then discharge separated water into storm drains. In some cases, the captured oil is sold.

According to Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Jeanne Reincke, federal law allows fining the owners of the building as much as three times the cleanup cost--which so far has been tallied at about $200,000. “They’re going to have to pay triple what the government pays,” Reincke said, adding that she has heard that the owners are insured for such a liability.

The 168-unit complex at 630 South Masselin Avenue is owned by Wilshire West Partners, according to officials. The owner’s general partner, Seiichiro Amakasu, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board, the agency that issued a permit for the oil and water separator, has already ordered Wilshire West Partners to ensure that there will be no further spills into runoff lines and the creek. The leaks are now being collected in tanks at the building. So-called oily water separators are common devices in the neighborhood, where shallow ground water and oil deposits have long posed problems for property owners.

In a news conference at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center of Orange County in Huntington Beach, state Fish and Game Department officials said the apartment complex experienced a similar spill earlier this year. This week’s leak was discovered Monday afternoon, after the fluid traveled seven miles to the concrete Ballona Creek channel. Emergency crews prevented much of the oil from entering Santa Monica Bay, but the spill injured a number of birds in the channel.

Fish and Wildlife teams collected and cleaned 42 birds, a mix of ducks, grebes, coots and plovers. One of those birds, a plover, died.

Ducks rescued from Ballona Creek lay strangely silent as volunteers scrubbed oil from their feathers Thursday.

“They’re docile because they’re in shock,” said Engrid Matthews as she and fellow volunteer Jim Robins dipped a limp mallard into soapy water. “I’ll know they’re feeling better when they start making noise and acting wild again,” she said.

Volunteers have worked with the birds around the clock, with feedings eight times a day and repeated baths. Many more than the 42 captured birds may have been affected, according to Scott Newman, a wildlife veterinarian who evaluated dozens of birds at the scene. “No one can tell what the long-term effects are,” he added.