Crews tackle apparent oil spill

The Huntington Beach Fire Department and other agencies are working to clean an apparent oil spill in a flood control channel east of Beach Boulevard.

The Fire and Public Works departments joined with the Department of Fish and Game, Coast Guard and Orange County Health Department to contain the problem after calls came in about 9 a.m. today. Martha Werth, a spokeswoman for the fire department, said the responders were trying to determine the substance’s origin.

“They pretty much have determined it is oil,” she said. “They’re just trying to determine where it came from, if it just leaked into the channel or it was dumped into the channel.”

Werth said the crews had set booms in the water to contain the substance so it wouldn’t drain into the Talbert Marsh, an area rich with wildlife.

— Michael Miller