100 gallons of sulfolane spilled into creek at local ExxonMobil facility

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

One hundred gallons of sulfolane, a water soluble liquid industrial solvent, spilled from the ExxonMobil owned Popco Oil and Gas Facility into Las Flores Creek late Tuesday night, a Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman said yesterday.
The facility is located near El Capitan Canyon. Las Flores Creek flows into Corral Creek, which then empties into the ocean.


Lisa Palmer, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil, said sulfolane is used at the facility to clean natural gas. The liquid was described by a fire department official as having a, “low health toxicity level as well as a low flammability level.”
Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said an ExxonMobil employee noticed the leak Tuesday at 11:45 p.m. and began the process of shutting down the facility.
“They state that this initial action probably helped to minimize the gallons of product spilled,” Iskow said.
Palmer said the leak was stopped within five minutes of its discovery and tests taken along the creek leading to the ocean showed no signs of the liquid.
“We shut that part of the operation down to make sure the release was stopped,” Palmer said. “Cleanup operations commenced immediately.”
Initial reports estimated the level of spilled liquid at more than 400 gallons, but that number was later reduced to 100.
In order to prevent any of the contaminated water in the creek from reaching the ocean, Iskow said workers closed a weir gate in Corral Creek, but their efforts were overwhelmed by swift water. Iskow said the failure of the weir gate likely allowed some amount and concentration of sulfolane to travel down creek into the ocean.
Palmer noted that under drier circumstances, dykes set up around the facility and at several spots along the creek would have stopped any contaminated water from making its way to the ocean.
“It’s unfortunate that it occurred,” Palmer said. “It’s our responsibility to respond and protect the environment too. The creek was appropriately monitored and protected.”
Iskow said a broken flange gasket on a gas processing exchanger unit caused the spill. He said general operations resumed at the facility after the cause of the leak was identified and fixed.
Iskow said workers at the facility and ExxonMobil officials have been “very cooperative and helpful with the mitigation of possible hazards and the incident investigation.”
He said the County Fire Department’s Hazardous Materials Unit, County Office of Emergency Services, County Energy Division, California Department of Fish and Game, State Division of Oil and Gas and the U.S. Coast Guard were all notified and responded to the spill.
The incident at the ExxonMobil facility comes on the heels of a string of crude oil spills at local Greka Energy facilities that have sparked widespread criticism from local and state officials.
In the past two months, incidents at Greka facilities have spewed 200,000 gallons of crude oil and likely much more polluted water onto local ground and into local creeks.
The Greka spills prompted the county Board of Supervisors to take steps at their Jan. 15 meeting to tighten the reins on spill-prone oil and gas companies.