Work continues near a pipeline that’s been leaking gasoline into a flood channel that carries Walnut Creek (the city’s namesake waterway) through town, the City of Walnut Creek says.
At least 40,000 gallons of gasoline is believed to have leaked into the channel from the Concord-to-San Jose pipeline operated by Kinder Morgan, a Houston-based company that operates oil and gas pipelines and terminals.
As of Dec. 23, an estimated 14,574 gallons of leaked gasoline has been recovered, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.
There is no ongoing health danger to the public connected to the leak or the remediation efforts, the city says.
The leak was first reported Dec. 2 by maintenance workers who saw and smelled gasoline in a drainage canal near Civic Park downtown. A pressure drop in the pipeline had been detected south of that point about 10 days earlier, prompting a shutdown of parts of the pipeline. Meanwhile, rain water runoff is being channeled around the work site.
Two state agencies, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, as well as the City of Walnut Creek and the Contra Costa County Flood Control District, are monitoring the repair work and environmental remediation. It isn’t known when the work will be finished.
Most of the remediation work is being done during the day, but the city says there also is some nighttime activity, with generators powering lights to aid the cleanup workers in overnight monitoring of the site.
I was bike riding just past that spot on the iron horse trail yesterday. The smell of hydrocarbons was very strong. I work in a refinery and I’m pretty aware of when these things become somewhat hazardous. They even had full time atmospheric monitoring with somebody walking around with a monitoring device to measure the amount of benzene and H2S in the air. Don’t believe what they tell you in the media that this is cleaned up.
Yes, how many calls were made to Kinder-Morgan (if people even knew to call them)…….and how many of those calls were blown off?
@American Citizen. I worked briefly at the 76 Rodeo Refinery many years ago. The smell of hydrogen sulfide was overwhelming. I don’t know how you stand it. Hats off.
Yeah, let’s let these companies continue to police themselves. Regulation is overated 😉 *sarcasm intended. Where have we heard Kinder-Morgan before?
I complained about it more than a week ago. The odor of gas was overwhelming. I’d like to know how mych gas has been seeping unto borh the canal and delta.
“There is no ongoing health danger to the public connected to the leak or the remediation efforts, the city says.”
And the wildlife?
The birds finally have water and now it’s contaminated with gasoline. Lovely.