Thousands of gallons of spilled milk mixture at Clover plant in Petaluma poses no threat to health, environment

About 3,000 gallons of a milk mixture that spilled Friday morning at a Petaluma processing plant reached the Petaluma River where it dissipated naturally, according to a state report.

On Saturday morning, a Petaluma fire official said the spill was mostly water with some diluted milk and did not appear to be a cause of health or environmental concern.

The mixture came from an underground tank that collects excess water, milk and cleaning materials, according to a hazardous materials spill report filed Friday afternoon with the California Office of Emergency Services. The report listed the mixture as containing water, milk and what appeared to be two cleaning products — one chlorinated and one containing an “acid sanitizer.”

But the solution was mostly water — not raw milk — and some cleaning solutions, Petaluma Fire Department Assistant Chief Chad Costa said in a Saturday morning phone interview.

The levels of cleaning solutions were low enough that California Fish and Wildlife officials indicated they were not a significant health or environmental concern, Costa said.

The Petaluma Fire Department was the first responding agency, with firefighters traveling at 6:05 a.m. to a hazardous materials spill call at the Clover milk processing plant on Lakeville Street. Arriving crews were told a pipe had broken and the substance had made its way into a storm drain, according to a departmental news release published Friday.

A pipe running from the collection tank to a second tank designed to discharge the milk mixture into Petaluma’s sewer system ruptured, according to the spill report. The 3,000 gallons of liquid escaped the rupture and flowed down a street into a storm drain that feeds into the river.

Crews began investigating how far the substance had traveled and found it had made it into the river. Fire crews placed a containment boom in the river to keep the materials from spreading further. But the spill dissipated quickly and was nearly gone by the time they deployed the boom, Costa said.

Clover brought in a private cleanup company to respond to the spill, but Costa said he did not know what work they had conducted. The spill report stated no action was taken beyond the boom deployment.

Officials believe “there’s no environmental or health risk with this spill,” Costa said. The spill report indicated drinking water was not impacted and there were no injuries.

Officials with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife did not provide a comment by press time.

Other responding agencies included Petaluma Public Works and Ellis Creek Water.

Amelia Parreira is a staff writer for the Argus-Courier. She can be reached at amelia.parreira@arguscourier.com or 707-521-5208.