Coolant Spill Worse Than First Estimated

In a preliminary report, officials at the Rockwell Science Center said three problems compounded to cause a Christmas night spill of toxic coolant into the Conejo Creek.

The spill was also larger than initially estimated. Science Center officials said Wednesday that about 49,000 gallons of water mixed with ethylene glycol--a chemical similar to auto antifreeze--spilled from the facility. Initial estimates had put the spill at 36,000 gallons.

In a letter to Thousand Oaks officials, Gerald Brown, the plant’s manager of environment, health and safety, wrote that the simultaneous failure of an air compressor, the depletion of a nitrogen supply and the failure to secure a secondary manual valve during routine maintenance of an air-conditioning system, contributed to the spill.

Brown said the company is taking steps to prevent the same problems from happening again and will submit a report to the city by Jan. 31.

City officials, who sent a violation notice to the Science Center on Dec. 30, said they were satisfied with the company’s response.

“The report is acceptable to us,” said JoAnne Kelly, resource division manager with the city’s Public Works Department. Kelly said the city had asked the Science Center to submit a timetable for implementing measures to make sure that such a spill would not happen again.

“They did comply,” Kelly said. “We’ll be evaluating their revised spill control plan at the end of January.”

Science Center officials also sent a report to the state Department of Fish and Game with results of a water sample study of the creek’s waters. Fish and game officials, who are investigating the spill, said they had not seen the report, and no details on the effect on wildlife were released.