RICHMOND, Calif. -- Two mallard ducks and hundreds of small fish were found dead Tuesday afternoon in an irrigation ditch near the site of a toxic chemical spill in Richmond's Parchester Village, the California Department of Fish and Game reported.

The spill, now estimated to be about 3,300 gallons of the chemical solvent toluene, occurred sometime between Friday night and Monday morning when a thief cut through a fence surrounding Reaction Products Co., Inc., located at 840 Morton Ave., and stole brass fittings from five above-ground chemical storage tanks.

The fittings would bring about $10 at a recycling plant, but the cleanup of the chemical released by the theft is estimated to cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan said.

Cleanup crews recovered about 3,000 gallons of toluene and water mixture Monday, and had recovered another 1,300 gallons of the water and chemical mixture from the irrigation ditch and surrounding area as of 3:00 p.m. today, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

Officials had not yet been able to determine how much toluene was contained in the mixture.

They also still don't know how much of the chemical seeped into Parchester Marsh, which is part of Point Pinole Regional Shoreline and home to several endangered species, or how much washed into San Pablo Bay.

Cleanup crews have been using vacuum trucks to pump liquid out of the drainage ditch, booms to contain the chemical once it reaches the water and a charcoal filtration system designed to clean the water as it heads back out to the bay.

The response to the spill, however, was marred by delayed and inaccurate reporting by Reaction Products Co., Inc. Owner Dwight Merrill, Gagan said at a news conference at the spill site this morning.

Merrill allegedly discovered the spill at 8:15 a.m. Monday, but didn't report it until 10:39 a.m., and when he did, he allegedly told officials that 500 gallons of mineral spirits had spilled and that he had hired a contractor to clean it up, Gagan said.

Merrill notified the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials program at 10:45 a.m., but he was still claiming that the spill was 500 gallons of mineral spirits. He told county officials that he had the spill contained and declined county assistance, according to Gagan.

Personnel from the contract company, Clean Harbors Environmental Services, realized that the material spilled was not mineral spirits and notified the U.S. Coast Guard at 11:09 a.m., according to Coast Guard officials.

Meanwhile, residents of Parchester Village were breathing the chemical fumes, which smell like a combination of rubber cement glue and spray paint and are believed to be carcinogenic, and the product was making its way into sensitive habitat and toward the bay.

The U.S. Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Game, Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the East Bay Regional Parks District and the Contra Costa Hazardous Material Program are investigating the incident and overseeing the cleanup.

East Bay Regional Parks District officials have closed Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, all access routes to the shoreline, and the fishing pier.