Underground oil spill clean-up in Santa Maria

Crews are on the scene of a small underground oil spill in Santa Maria.

It happened earlier Tuesday afternoon near the intersection of Railroad and Creston streets on the city’s northwest side.

The spill was spotted by a crew doing routine maintenance on an underground pipeline owned and operated by Phillips 66.

The company says the spill was confined to a small excavation area underground and was limited to about 11 gallons of crude.

It’s unclear how long the spill was taking place or if it was caused by the excavation crew doing maintenance work on the pipeline.

Phillips 66 says the spilled oil was quickly contained with no threat to the community or the groundwater and all mandatory reporting regulatory agencies have been notified.

This is now a cleanup operation with rush hour traffic along Railroad Street is slightly affected.