The Canary Report

Anatomy of a toxic chemical spill

Posted on Feb 25, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Environment, Government Regulation, Guest Bloggers

On February 17, 2010, in Alameda, CA, a garbage or recycle truck owned by Alameda County Industries blew its hydraulic line at the corner of Oak Street and San Jose Avenue, spewing hydraulic fluid all over the street. I had to walk through it to get to my house.

By guestblogger Steph.

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02-17-10

February 17, 2010 - Alameda, CA. That's not snow - it's 57F outside. Alameda County Industries garbage or recycle truck blew its hydraulic hose earlier in the day, and their crew came out with an absorbent material to pick up the spill. That material was like fine grain sand and immediately went airborne. Now it's on the cars and everything, and likely in my house since I had to open the front door to go inside.

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02/18/10

On February 17, 2010 in Alameda, CA, a garbage or recycle truck owned by Alameda County Industries (ACI) blew its hydraulic line at the corner of Oak Street and San Jose Avenue, spewing hydraulic fluid all over the street.

Cars continued driving, as San Jose Ave is a thoroughfare, and the oil spread all up and down both streets. ACI sent a cleaning crew, who applied a thin sandy ‘absorbent’ material all over the road, which got picked up by passing cars and went airborne immediately, with the oil particles on the sand.

The scene above is what I had to walk through to get to my house.

Please google hydraulic fluid toxicity to learn more, and also check out a news story about a woman who died after a similar accident.

I have also uploaded photos here. My lips were stinging when I got back into the house last night after taking pictures. I should have worn a mask of course. Of course. I shed all my clothes in the kitchen and put them in a garbage bag. I took a shower immediately.

Last night I filed complaint with the Alameda Department of Public Works and the City Clerk’s office for Boards and Commissions. This morning, following Susie Collins’ advice, I phoned up the police department to make sure they’d been notified. They said they had, and seemed indifferent to me. They routed me over to the fire department, where I was told I’d get a call back. I got a voicemail saying they’d send someone over to check out the street, but I didn’t see anyone come by in a Fire Department uniform or vehicle.

At 3pm today, I received the following email:

Good afternoon Steph,

I am responding back to your e-mail that was sent to ACI this morning, at approximately 2:30pm on February 17,2010 one of our fully automated trucks had a hydraulic hose rupture and leaked fluid onto the street, our driver immediately contacted our dispatch center and a field supervisor.

Upon notification of the spill we immediately contacted the City of Alameda, Public works department. Both the City of Alameda Fire and Police department were called and responded to the scene to assist us with the cleaning of the street and traffic control.

After meeting with the fire department and the urban run-off group they released the scene back to us for our cleanup process. We responded with 7 ACI employees to put dry sweep on the on the fluid and swept up all the areas effected. The hydraulic fluid can become slippery and that’s why we reacted to get it cleaned up immediately. The fluid that was on the ground is a premium hydraulic oil that is commonly used in hydraulic systems. The absorbent that was used is called select sorb professional multi purpose spill aid (MSDS_SelectSorbProfessional.pdf).

We are keeping in contact with the city of Alameda and the urban run-off Manager, today we had street sweepergo thru the areas that were effected and he will be returning again tonight after cars have left the street. As far as the City of Alameda and ACI is concerned there are no direct health hazards as a result of the spill.

I apologize for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you, please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions or concerns.

Best Regards,

Guy Martinez

Safety Manger

I sent an email back to Mr. Martinez, asking for specifics on the hydraulic fluid; “Thank you for your response. Can you tell me what type of hydraulic fluid had spilled, aside from it being ‘premium’? Was it mineral oil, organophosphate ester, or polyalphaolefin?”

And now I wait.

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02/18/10

February 18, 2010 - Alameda, CA. Hydraulic fluid spill - Day 2. Here comes the street cleaner.

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02/19/10

I got my second reply from Alameda County Industries (ACI). It said simply, “Good morning it is a petroleum-based mineral oil, have a good day guy”.

In my correspondence with ACI, I’ve been copying all neighbors I have email addresses for. A few have responded – it’s all ‘GO GET ‘EM! YEAH!’ type replies. No offers to help me do more. No pure outrage or demands for better cleanup. I’ll visit the fire department tomorrow – show them the email trail – see if anything else will be done.

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02/20/10

February 20, 2010 - Alameda, CA. Neither ACI nor the fire department have returned to finish the cleanup.

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02/23/10

I’ve got some additional info regarding the hydraulic oil spill that happened in front of my house on February 17, 2010.

If there are any side effects or damages going on from that spill, I won’t know about it for a little bit. The only reaction I suffered was burning lips from the sandy absorbent material the cleanup crew put down on the road to cover the oil spill that day. The burning went away quickly, as I bagged my clothes and hopped in the shower immediately after being outside, and wore a mask anytime after that I had to be outside.

Thanks to Susie’s great advice, I emailed the company responsible (Alameda County Industries, a.k.a. ACI) by 10:35pm on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (the same day as the spill). I also emailed the City Clerks Department in hopes of reaching ‘Boards and Commissions’, and the Public Works Department for info on the spill. The next day, I phoned the police and fire departments and left messages.

The day after the spill, I got emails back from ACI, telling me exactly what materials they had used. I also got an email back from the City Clerk’s office, telling me the Public Works department would handle my issue. I have yet to hear back from the Public Works Department!

The morning after the spill, Matt Tunney, Division Fire Chief (B Shift) from Alameda fire department phoned at 7:30am. He said that the Alameda police department had forwarded my complaint to him. He sent a fire inspector out by 8:30am to evaluate the scene, and said that they’d determine if they needed to bring out the street cleaners again. He said he was sorry for the inconvenience…

Four days later, on February 22, 2010 at 9:30am, Dale Vogelsang, Deputy Fire Chief phoned to let me know that the Alameda fire department had gone and inspected the spill, and did get ACI and the street sweepers out there. He said that since that time, they’ve made another visit and have required ACI to come out yet again “to get all the remaining material off the road”. He said the cleanup would be slated for February 22 and/or February 23, and that if ACI did not show up, to give him a call back. Mr. Vogelsang thanked me for my concern, and said that he hoped that ACI remedied this quickly also.

Well, I’ve been back to work, so I’m not sure if ACI showed back up again. Plus, it’s been raining on and off since Sunday. I left a message for Mr. Vogelsang this evening to say I am not sure if ACI showed up again, but that I’m not comfortable with the material they used to ‘absorb’ the oil spill. I thanked him and the AFD for their awesome followup work so far.

This evening, Darrell Handy, Risk Manager for the Alameda Office of the City Attorney phoned me to follow up on the spill. I had never made a call to the City Attorney, so I thanked him and asked how he got the message. He said the police department had forwarded my complaint to his office, so he wanted to follow up.

Well! How nice! A follow up call FIVE DAYS after an oil spill!

Before I could say anything, Mr. Handy launched into a spiel about proper procedure in notifying authorities, and which authorities to notify after an oil spill. I told him that I don’t know anything about “proper procedure”, having never had to report an oil spill before, but I DID in fact contact ACI directly, as well as the fire department, who sent an inspector down and ordered ACI to do further cleanup.

Mr. Handy stopped in his tracks at that. He basically gave me a pat on the back for the calls I’d made. I told him I was glad that the his office had called me, anyway, cuz his office was the next office I might have called. I told him I was trying to figure out if I should contact an environmental lawyer or what.

Mr. Handy replied that the absorbent material used (which contains 99% Diatomaceous Earth, less than 1% Crystalline Silica, less than 1% Cristobolite, and less than 1% “Odor Counteractant – Proprietary Formula”) is approved by the state of California, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I told him I hadn’t known that, and thanked Mr. Handy for his phone call.

After I hung up, I decided that this guy rubbed me wrong, so I decided to do a basic Internet background check on him. I found one complaint about him. Past that, there’s not much history I can find, at least on the web. But let’s just count my experience with him as complaint #2, since he took five days to get back to me. And perhaps let’s not accuse the man himself, but rather the city. I am definitely not complaining against the Alameda Fire Department, though – they have been my best ally so far. And well, I’m always a fan of the AFD anyway.

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02/24/10

The Public Works Department emailed me today, six days after I was told I “should be hearing from them shortly”. Their message to me was that they have routed my inquiry back to the City Clerk’s office, and there it is being handled as a “Request for Public Information”.

Fascinating.

So I wrote them back and chewed them all out for their red tape B.S., heh.

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