Oil spill fouls marsh at park

Cleanup crews spent much of Saturday working to restore marshland in a Harbor City park after about 4,200 gallons of oil spilled from a nearby industrial tank.

The Coast Guard, the state Department of Fish and Game and Los Angeles County’s hazardous-materials unit are expected to spend four days removing oil from the northeast corner of Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, the 231-acre recreation area that once was home to Reggie the alligator.

The spill was discovered Friday and originated next to the park at a separation tank owned by Cooper and Brain Inc., a crude-oil production company. None of the oil spilled into the park’s Lake Machado, said Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Nicholas Pardi.

Cleanup agencies had contained the spill by Saturday, Pardi said. The cause was under investigation. A representative of Cooper and Brain had no comment.

The discharge was viewed as an unwelcome event in a park with pollution problems. Lake Machado is at the receiving end of a major storm drain and has been due for a major cleanup, said Peggy Nguyen, an environmental specialist with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks.

“The lake itself has historic issues in terms of water quality, and so this just makes an existing problem worse,” she said.

City officials plan to spend roughly $100 million on the cleanup of the park using money from Proposition O, a $500-million bond measure devoted to water quality projects that was passed by voters in 2004.

The park has faced other problems in recent years, from a mosquito infestation that exasperated students at nearby Harbor College to damage caused by a homeless encampment at the park’s north end. Reggie, who allegedly was dumped in the lake by his owners, became internationally known while eluding capture for almost two years. He now lives at the Los Angeles Zoo.

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Times staff writer Deborah Schoch contributed to this report.