Parents, teachers and environmental advocates are raising concerns about possible health risks after a pipeline was ruptured in East LA Friday, spilling more than 2,000 gallons of crude oil onto streets and into storm drains.
Crews were drilling to install a fiber optic line near East Cesar E. Chavez and North Eastern avenues when they struck the pipe, according to the LA County Fire Department. While the leak was contained and district officials cleared schools to resume instruction within hours, residents and local environmental advocates questioned whether enough precautions were taken.
In a statement sent to nearby campuses around 11:30 a.m., including Esteban E. Torres High School, Eastman Elementary School and Eastman Early Education Center, the Los Angeles Unified School District said the smell of gas from the ruptured pipeline intermittently drifted over to school campuses.
“LAUSD Office of Environmental Health and Safety, and maintenance and operations have responded to the issue and cleared our campus for normal operations,” the district said. “In an abundance of caution, we instituted inclement weather procedures for students and staff on campus and distributed masks to those who requested one. Students and staff are safe.”
The smell and the cleanup did cause disruptions, however.
Damaris Rodriguez picked up her son and daughter from Esteban E. Torres High School around 10:30 a.m. after her son complained of a headache and trouble breathing from the fumes coming into his classroom.
“If the kids are having a hard time breathing, send them home, get them out of the area,” Rodriguez said. “The workers that are there are wearing hazmats, but the public is still there.”
Celeste Cruz, a social studies teacher at Torres High School, said teachers were instructed to hand out masks to students and keep windows and doors closed.
According to Cruz, students arrived late to school because public transportation was dropping them off farther than usual due to street closures.
“One student is new to the area and had to contact classmates for directions on how to get to school…forcing them to longer poor air quality exposure,” Cruz said.
Cruz also said many students and teachers complained about the smell, and some felt nauseous or dizzy.
In a statement, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said it had not received any complaints to its community health complaint line.
The department said it had been working with agency partners, including the fire department’s Health Hazardous Materials Division and LAUSD.
“The Fire Department conducted air monitoring at the schools and in classrooms, with no notable readings,” the department said.
While the cleanup has been underway, organizers with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice are worried about respiratory exposure to residents, particularly pregnant women who teach and/or live in the vicinity.
“The oil releases volatile organic compounds,” said mark! Lopez with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. “Benzene is of particular interest because it’s so hazardous. When people breathe it in, that exposure is happening.”
“It’s about the cumulative health impacts because people in our community are getting exposed to a whole bunch of stuff already. The baseline of exposure is so high that when you add this additional exposure, there’s an issue,” Lopez added.
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To test the air quality, East Yard advocated for the use of Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS), a device they said can test much lower levels. It would provide better “data to be able to tell us if there’s still a threat” that could potentially spill into people’s homes, Lopez said.
According to Lopez, the fire department used photoionization detectors, known as PIDs, at Torres High, which he said are inadequate. “The issue with PIDs is that it’s not a sensitive enough monitor,” he said.
Lopez said the PTR-MS was in use earlier in the day during a toxic chemical leak in Garden Grove. He said he was told by a person familiar with the operation that the PTR-MS would be deployed in East LA in the afternoon.
“Unfortunately, we won’t know what the highest points of exposure have been since most of the cleanup should be done by the time the equipment is on site,” East Yard said in a statement.
The LA County Fire Department has not responded to a Boyle Heights Beat request for details about the type of equipment used to sample air quality.
Lopez said they are urging residents to continue monitoring the situation. “If beyond this evening, they’re smelling odors or they’re feeling nauseous or anything like that, those are things that they need to be reporting,” Lopez said.
How to report air quality concerns
To report excessive odors, smoke, dust and other air contaminants, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice advises residents to contact the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) by calling 1-800-CUT SMOG or 1-800-288-7664.
Residents can also access South Coast AQMD’s online complaint system by clicking here.
To report health concerns related to odors, residents can also contact the LA County Department of Public Health by calling 626-430-9821 or by emailing DPH-OEJCH@ph.lacounty.gov.
