West LA oil leak: Substance seeps from ground under Rancho Park overpass

LOS ANGELES - Clean-up crews from several city agencies continue to work on the approximately 1,000 gallons of oil that seeped into the ground beneath a freeway overpass in Rancho Park Tuesday, with 20 to 40 gallons escaping into a storm drain before Los Angeles Fire Department personnel contained the seepage.

Firefighters responded to the 2800 block of South Sepulveda Boulevard, near the 405 Freeway, around 5:54 p.m. Monday and discovered oil coming out of the ground at a rate of approximately 3 to 5 gallons per minute, according to LAFD'S Nicholas Prange.

Prange said 500 to 1,000 gallons were believed to have seeped to the surface as of Monday night.

They then requested a vacuum truck from the waste management company Clean Harbors and sand from the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services to help mitigate the environmental effects of the flow of the oil, Prange said.

Repair crews were brought in, but the oil continued seeping to the surface until around noon Tuesday.

Multiple oil pipes run through the area and various agencies were working to determine which line was compromised. JoJo Comandante, a hazardous materials specialist with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said the leak may have occurred simultaneously with a leak in a Los Angeles city water line. He noted that the oil managed to leak into a storm drain "unnoticed for two miles downstream."

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There is no anticipated widespread public hazard, Prange said.

An LAFD truck arrived to position the sand to provide additional material to protect the drains and the environment, Prange said.

Multiple oil pipes run through the area and various agencies are working together to determine which line was compromised.

No injuries were reported. Sepulveda Boulevard is shut down in both directions in the vicinity of the spill for an unknown duration