Oil Found in Water Agency Pipeline, but Officials Downplay Threat

Oil seeped into a Metropolitan Water District pipeline in Newhall this week, causing the shutdown of a Granada Hills treatment plant for 40 hours, but officials are confident that the oil never made its way into anyone’s water glass or bathtub.

MWD officials shut down the Joseph Jensen Filtration Plant after the oil appeared six weeks ago and asked the Castaic Lake Water agency to do the same so they could inspect a pipeline the two agencies share. The Jensen plant went back into operation Wednesday.

Crude oil seeped into the pipeline inside the Newhall Tunnel, just east of the Golden State Freeway, as it has been doing for more than 20 years, said Jay Malinowski, chief of operations for the MWD. Oil is abundant in the soil there, he said.

“From a consumer standpoint, this is a nonissue,” he said. “Oil is very easy to see. It sits on top of the water and you just skim it off. We’re talking about less than a drop of oil per gallon.”

Service at the Castaic agency’s Rio Vista plant was shut down Monday and Tuesday as MWD workers looked for the source of the seepage. Malinowski said there was sufficient water in reserve tanks to supply consumers during the shutdown.

The Jensen plant provides water to 3 million households throughout the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

MWD officials have spent much money over the years trying to correct the problem, Malinowski said. The current system, which collects oil and pumps it away from the pipe, had been very successful. But several bolts on the collection system disintegrated and MWD officials are enlisting the help of metallurgists to create tougher bolts, he said.

Until then, oil will continue to seep into the pipe and will be removed at the Joseph Jensen plant, Malinowski, said.

“Nobody spilled any oil,” he said. “Natural oil is being squeezed into the pipe through a natural phenomena. I can’t say in strong enough terms that the public isn’t affected by this.”