By Mike Martinez , STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated: 04/18/2007 02:53:39 AM PDT
TRACY — A ruptured oil pipeline leaked hundreds of gallons of oil onto the westbound lanes of Interstate 580 late Tuesday afternoon, forcing the highway’s closure and backing up traffic for miles.
An oil slick oozed down an embankment, across both westbound lanes and about 150 feet along the highway at the Bird Road overcrossing.
Another significant amount reached a field on the opposite side of the roadway through a gully under the freeway.
One officer said the oil was “flowing like a river” through the gully, forming small pools in the empty field before the pipeline was shut off.
California Department of Transportation workers dumped dozens of bags of absorbent material onto the freeway during a cleanup.
The 20-inch pipeline shuttles oil between Bakersfield and the Shell refinery in Martinez. A Shell Oil supervisor told California Highway Patrol officials the exact cause of the leak is under investigation.
The oil company will be held responsible for the cleanup and would be billed by the state for its costs, CHP officials said.
Representatives from the California Department of Fish and Game monitored the spill because it occurred near the California Aqueduct and a creek that flows through the area.
Officials from the state and federal Environmental Protection Agency were expected at the site, as was a contingent from the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services.
The oil spill was reported around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday and the freeway was shut down about 45 minutes later. Early commute traffic was rerouted to State Route 132 and backed up beyond Corral Hollow Road.
One lane was open at 8:20 p.m. A second lane will not reopen until 3 p.m. today.
Mike Martinez can be reached at (209) 832-3947 or at [email protected].
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
