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Pipeline break spills crude oil into Los Angeles' neighborhood

by Reuters
Thursday, 15 May 2014 13:57 GMT

(Updates spill size, pipeline owner)

May 15 (Reuters) - Thousands of gallons of crude oil spilled over a half-mile area in Los Angeles on Thursday due to a break in an above-ground Plains West Coast pipeline, the city fire department said.

The spill was 10,000 gallons, according to Jamie Moore, a public information officer with the Los Angeles Fire Department. The first estimate of the spill was 1 million gallons, which was revised down to 50,000 gallons, or slightly more than 1,000 barrels.

The cleanup was under way this morning, with crews vacuuming up most of the crude.

Four people at a nearby business were evacuated with respiratory complaints, and two people were transferred to a hospital, the Associated Press said, citing a fire official.

The pipeline was shut off remotely, and the incident shut down a section of the Atwater Village area of the city, a local NBC affiliate reported.

"Oil is knee-high in some areas," the fire department said. "A handful of commercial businesses are affected."

The break in the 20-inch pipeline was at a pumping station in an industrial area near San Fernando Road in Atwater Village, the fire department said.

Video footage from the NBC affiliate showed oil spraying about 20 feet in the air from the leak, which happened at an oil-gathering station situated next to a strip club, The Gentlemen's Club, which was evacuated, according to media reports.

The Plains West Coast pipeline is run by Plains Pipeline L.P., a unit of Plains All American. A company spokesman did not immediately return a call outside normal business hours.

L.A. Battalion Chief David Spence told local television that the line ran from California's main oil-producing region near Bakersfield to a storage facility in Long Beach, near a cluster of refineries including those run by Phillips 66, Valero and Tesoro. It was unclear which, if any, of the plants would be affected by the disruption.

An oil pipeline of 20-inch diameter is medium-sized by industry standards and would generally transport about 200,000 barrels per day based on average rates. There was no immediate information about the specific capacity or throughput of the line. (Reporting by Selam Gebrekidan in New York, Arpan Varghese in Bangalore and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jessica Resnick-Ault)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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