The bill is continuing to add up for a cleanup operation near Castaic that’s now entered its sixth month, according to a state official.
A command center east of San Martinez Grande Canyon Road, north of Henry Mayo Drive, has kept Patriot Environmental Services workers busy since the oil spill was first responded to, according to Eric Laughlin, a spokesman with the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, a division of the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Laughlin first posted about the spill through the agency’s X account, @CalSPillWatch, on Nov. 28. The initial estimate for the leak, which was attributed to corrosion in an inactive pipe that had oil inside, is believed to have been about 400 gallons.
Since then, there’s been a series of rainstorms that have dropped about 17 inches of rain in the region, based on weather-station observations, which has slowed the process several times, according to Laughlin.
The initial estimate on cleanup completion was sometime in January.
“Since the response is ongoing, we don’t have an estimate for the total cost. And costs so far are still under review,” Laughlin wrote in an email Friday.
He said that so far, Patriot, which is contracted through the state for costs expected to be paid by the responsible party — the oil field’s operator — has recovered 497.25 cubic yards of oily soil and 177 “bags of PPE/boom/pads,” which refers to clean up materials used to absorb petroleum.
West Energy Operating LLC was listed as the responsible party based on the available state records.
Josh Kendrick, who described himself as a manager of the West Energy operation in the Del Valle oil field, said it was a relatively small operation that produced several hundred gallons per month, in a December interview.
Available records on the California Environmental Protection Agency’s State Water Resources Control Board website indicate the field’s operator, West Energy, has been cited several times in the past for an incomplete stormwater pollution prevention plan.
Laughlin was not ready to give final numbers on the spill, but he did say there’s been no additional evidence to indicate the spill has exceeded the initial estimates.
“After recent storms, drone flights did not observe any reoiling or heavy sheen in the downstream portions of the creek that had already been cleaned,” he indicated in a Feb. 26 email.
