Oil spill found near Vallejo following mysterious odor

The U.S. Coast Guard and cleanup crews from multiple state agencies worked Wednesday to contain two sprawling oil slicks in San Pablo Bay that are believed to be crude oil spilled by a tanker berthed at the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, officials said.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew pinpointed a mile-long, 40-yard wide slick Wednesday morning in the northern part of the bay off of Davis Point after a worker at the Phillips 66 refinery reported it to the state Office of Emergency Services.

Officials and residents just across the Carquinez Straight in Vallejo, meanwhile, wanted to know whether the oil was the source of a mysterious noxious odor that sickened dozens of people there and prompted a shelter-in-place order the night before.

A spokesman for Phillips 66 said a worker discovered the oil in the water at around 8 a.m. Wednesday close to the nearly 900-foot Yamuna Spirit oil tanker berthed at the marine terminal, prompting a temporary shutdown of the refinery.

Coast Guard crews flying over the spill area later discovered a second oil sheen near the refinery.

A Vallejo commuter ferry passes by the Yamuna Spirit which is surrounded by a containment boom in San Pablo Bay at the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, Calif., on Wed. September 21, 2016. A Vallejo commuter ferry passes by the Yamuna Spirit which is surrounded by a containment boom in San Pablo Bay at the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo, Calif., on Wed. September 21, 2016. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Oil spill found near Vallejo following mysterious odor 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

“The exact volume of material released is still being determined,” said Paul Adler, a Phillips 66 spokesman. “The cause of the incident is under investigation. At this time, there have been no injuries associated with the release, and there is no anticipated health impact to the community.”

On Wednesday night, the Coast Guard announced that a unified command has been established among the Coast Guard, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, Contra Costa County’s Hazardous Materials Department and Phillips 66 to respond to the incident.

The smell of oil wafted in the air as nearly a dozen boats used more than 1,000 feet of boom to contain some of the oil in the water around the behemoth tanker throughout the day Wednesday. No oil-covered wildlife was discovered near the spill, Coast Guard officials said.

The slick could be seen from the air, stretching across the Carquinez Strait toward the Alfred Zampa Memorial Bridge.

A bar pilot brought the Yamuna Spirit into the terminal without any problems shortly after midnight Monday, said Capt. David McCloy with San Francisco Bar Pilots.

The Coast Guard first learned of the slick around 8 p.m. Tuesday, when it got a report from a ferry about a strong smell of oil near the cities of Rodeo and Vallejo on San Pablo Bay. Crews did not locate the spill until it was reported the next morning.

Around the same time, south Vallejo residents reported a powerful and dizzying odor in the Glen Cove and Beverly Hills Park neighborhoods.

Hazardous-materials crews ordered residents to stay indoors after dozens of people who were feeling sick from the smell showed up at a hospital. The city then activated an emergency operation center while crews from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. responded to see if the odor was natural gas.

After several hours without detecting the smell, Vallejo city officials lifted the shelter-in-place order, while fire crews ruled out natural gas as the source of the stink.

Firefighters on Wednesday said the smell did not originate within Vallejo city limits.

Officials did not immediately know if the oil was related to the earlier smell in and around Vallejo.

Phillips 66 officials, though, are treating the oil spill and the mysterious odor as separate incidents. Adler said Coast Guard investigators visited a number of facilities at the refinery after the smell was reported Tuesday and did not discover any problems.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky