Compton Oil & Gas Chemical Spill

Chemical spill in Compton area spurs hundreds of complaints of lingering gas-like odors
Chemical spill in Compton area spurs hundreds of complaints of lingering gas-like odors

Air quality officials have cited a land developer and contractor over a chemical spill in the Compton area that has generated hundreds of complaints of lingering gas-like odors across a large area of Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District issued citations Friday alleging that developer Bridge Point Gardena Land and contractor OFRS Inc. caused a public nuisance in violation of rules governing the release of air contaminants.

The air district said the spill occurred Thursday at a job site in an empty lot and was caused by an attempt to move a small storage tank containing mercaptan, a pungent chemical odorant added to natural gas to help with leak detection. Fire officials said the site was an abandoned oil field near South Main Street and Rosecrans Avenue in an unincorporated area near Compton.

The South Coast district said it has received more than 220 odor complaints from residents and schools in more than a dozen communities, including parts of Los Angeles, Compton, Carson, Paramount, Lakewood and Long Beach and as far away as Anaheim, more than 15 miles east of the spill.

Mercaptan was one of the chemicals released during a months-long Aliso Canyon methane gas leak in late 2015 and early 2016 that sickened and displaced thousands in the San Fernando Valley neighborhood of Porter Ranch and surrounding communities.

See other oil and gas drilling issues on the Los Angeles Drilling Maps.

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