A spill of liquid asphalt at a Greka refinery west of Santa Maria prompted a hazmat response Saturday afternoon.
At 4:15 p.m., crews from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department were dispatched to 1660 Sinton Road, according to Capt. Daniel Bertucelli.
Forty to 50 barrels of liquid asphalt were released from a large tank at the site, Bertucelli said.
The leak stopped, and the asphalt was contained to the site, he added.
No one was injured, he said, and the cause of the incident remained under investigation.
The Greka refinery, which has operated since the 1930s, is surrounded by agricultural fields with residential neighborhoods 2.4 miles from the facility.
Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency ordered Greka to conduct tests to determine whether improper storage and management of hazardous wastes have contaminated the soil and groundwater at its refinery.
The order to conduct sampling stemmed from a Dec. 13 visit at which EPA inspectors found that Greka’s facility had improperly stored, labeled and managed hazardous waste from its refinery processes.
EPA inspectors documented waste dumped directly into an unlined pit, also known as a surface impoundment, located 90 feet from agricultural lands, the agency noted. That pit was described as 170 feet wide and 445 feet long. The Greka site plan called it an “asphalt reservoir,” with employees saying that it dated back to World War II.
The facility, which is located on Sinton Road and surrounded by farm fields, does not have a required permit to store hazardous waste, EPA officials noted.
Greka also has been entangled in a legal case filed by regulators seeking more than $55 million in federal penalties and costs, about $8 million in state penalties and more for previous spills at other sites in northern Santa Barbara County.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.