Briefly in the news

Haz-mat teams worked through the night Monday cleaning up about 15,000

gallons of toxic sludge that was illegally dumped into the Slater flood

control channel over the weekend, city officials said.

It is suspected that someone pulled a truck up to the channel between

Goldenwest Street and Gothard Avenue late Saturday or Sunday night and

dumped the hazardous waste, said Deputy City Administrator Rich Barnard.

Public works teams found the foul mess when they went out to check on

and clear storm drains in preparation for the expected rains on Tuesday,

Barnard said.

“They found the material and called haz-mat out. They worked all

through the night cleaning up the material, which appears to be 15,000

gallons of some type of degreaser with fuel or diesel fuel mixed in,”

Barnard said.

City officials speculated that the waste appeared to be degreaser used

to clean some sport of engine parts, Barnard added.

The channel winds out of central park, dumping into the Wintersberg

channel and eventually makes its way to Bolsa Chica.

“We had set up 200 sand bags so it wouldn’t go anyplace,” Barnard

said. “We checked on all the drains up stream to see if it came from

another source and all the channels leading up to it were clear so it

appears to have been dumped here.”

The cleanup, which began at 3 p.m. Monday had workers out at the

channel until about noon on Tuesday.

The city does not have any leads as to who may have dumped the waste.