Construction Crew Ruptures Crude Oil Pipeline in East Los Angeles, Sending Oil into Los Angeles River
State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez of the 25th District announced her office is monitoring the construction accident.
EAST LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — May 22 A fiber-optic construction crew ruptured an underground crude oil pipeline early Friday morning near East Cesar Chavez Avenue and North Eastern Avenue, releasing approximately 2,400 gallons of crude oil that entered nearby storm drains and was released into the Los Angeles River.
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded at 3:20 a.m. to the hazardous materials incident, and the pipeline operator shut down the affected section within 30 minutes, stopping the flow.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife Office of Spill Prevention and Response deployed an OSPR crew to the scene while Los Angeles County Public Health issued guidance the same day on odor avoidance and contact precautions.
State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez of the 25th District announced her office is monitoring the construction accident.
Incident Details and Cause
The ruptured line is Line 63, operated by Plains All American Pipeline, which gathers and distributes crude oil from the San Joaquin Valley for delivery to another pipeline and local refiners in the Los Angeles area.
Construction crews boring a 6-inch hole approximately 10 feet underground to install fiber-optic cable struck the pipeline, which also runs 10 feet beneath the street surface.
The incident occurred in East Los Angeles near the border with Monterey Park, prompting immediate closure of the Cesar Chavez and Eastern avenues intersection in all directions for several hours.
Assessment: The third-party excavation strike on a shallow urban pipeline segment produced a rapid but localized release that responders contained before wider dispersion occurred.
Confirmation that product reached the Los Angeles River through the storm drain system underscores the importance of urban drainage infrastructure in spill pathways, even when surface containment appears successful.
