An emergency generator at Providence Mission Hospital spilled an estimated 290 gallons of diesel into the storm drain and then onto the sand at Totuava Beach on Wednesday.
Around 5:45 a.m., the Laguna Beach Fire Department was dispatched to a fuel spill at Mission Hospital, according to a city press release. Officials said an undetermined small amount of fuel reached Totuava Beach.
A spill response team from the California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife responded to the scene and haven’t observed impacts to wildlife or the ocean, the agency said in a tweet. The fuel source was stopped shortly after the spill started and an investigation is ongoing. Crews have cleaned and inspected the impacted storm drain.
A generator fuel tank malfunctioned Wednesday during a monthly generator test, causing a leak. The mishap was immediately detected and isolated, said Carrie Arneth Miller, a Providence Mission Hospital spokesperson. Crews brought in a backup generator during the investigation and the hospital never lost power during the incident.
“We are devastated that a second fuel spill has occurred and impacted our coastal community,” Miller wrote in an email Friday. “While the initial data confirms that a limited amount of diesel was released, we owe an apology to the community. Like everyone in Laguna Beach, we treasure our coastline and are committed to a thorough cleanup.”
This latest incident is the second diesel spill involving the hospital’s emergency generator in just over a year.
“I think we’re going to take a stronger role this time to ensure there is a containment system that will prevent any off-site spill from happening in the future,” Mayor Bob Whalen said in a phone interview.
The diesel spill will likely be at the top of the agenda for a regularly scheduled meeting of senior city officials and hospital administrators in mid-October, Whalen said.
On May 7, 2020, a diesel spill ultimately totaling 2,100 gallons forced the closure of Totuava and Thousand Steps beaches. As part of its normal operations, Mission Hospital regularly checks that its emergency electricity generator correctly functions, Laguna Beach officials said. During these tests, the generator’s fuel tank is depleted and needs to be refilled by a second storage tank on site. That system failed at some point sending fuel into the storm drain.
A Mission Hospital-contracted environmental clean-up company spent months bagging up and removing contaminated sand off the beach via a landing craft and barge. The work was closely monitored by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Hospital administrators promised not re-instate the generator until confident they had exhausted all opportunities to ensure this would not happen again, a spokesperson said in July 2020.
“It’s kind of a shocking that one of the major companies in Laguna Beach is continuing to discharge diesel fuel, which is highly toxic to the marine ecology and I don’t know that scooping up sand does much to resolve the impacts,” said Mike Beanan, co-founder of the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition.
Among the notified agencies were Laguna Beach Marine Safety, Laguna Beach Water Quality, OC Lifeguards, OC Health Department, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, Cal EPA, OC Public Works, and OC Parks.
This story is developing and will be updated as necessary.
