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Leaking
Underground Fuel Tanks Pose A Threat To Beverly Hills
Water: one
the most valuable resources that the Earth possess. It is our duty to preserve it for future generations.
The problem is that the water supply in Beverly Hills could be
threatened by a multitude of leaking underground fuel tanks in the
close vicinity of where Beverly Hills pumps its groundwater from.
From 1976 to 1997 the city of Beverly Hills purchased a full one-hundred percent of its water from the Metropolitan Water
District. The city thought it wise however, to be at least somewhat
self-sufficient so the city recently entered into a five-year agreement to use
a ground water pumping system. This agreement was made with a company
named Earthtech who agreed to design, build and finance the project.
The city in turn would buy 25 percent of its water supply from
Earthtech. The plant, which is virtually a desalination plant due to
the brackish water content of the Beverly Hills groundwater from the
Hollywood aquifer, went
into operation June 25th, 2003. In full operation, the plant treats approximately three million gallons of water a day.
The new plant comes as a relief to the citizens of Beverly Hills
until one considers the placement of the plant. Underneath the
facility is a Southern California Gas Company tank that was at one
time leaking fuel into the groundwater. In a very close proximity,
various other leaking fuel tanks have been marked by the regional
water quality management district. The most pressing of the nearby
leaking fuel tanks are those owned by the 76 gas station on Crescent
and Little Santa Monica. The 76 station's tanks are speculated to
have been leaking for four decades since the opening of the station
in 1963. Although it is unknown for sure how long they leaked, it is
clear that there is significant contamination underneath the gas
station and the contamination has since spread. There are five
monitoring wells that check contamination spread near the station
and all show high levels of liquid phase hydrocarbons that far exceed
the state regulations. In 1998, the 76 station was required to
install double-layer tanks to prohibit further leaking. The toxic
waste remains underground however, and probably will remain there
for tens of thousands of years if action is not taken to clean the
waste.
Picture
shows the water well and treatment plant in blue, red squares are
leaking underground fuel tanks (with the most potent ones from the
76 station being off to the bottom left corner) and the red circles
are monitoring wells.
California has 28,000 leaking underground fuel tanks. Only approximately 7,000 have been actively
remediated at a cost of $1 billion. In the greater Los Angeles area alone there are more than 1,100 gas stations with leaking underground fuel
tanks according to the American Chemical Society report. Another report has said leaking tanks not only threaten
groundwater, but when petroleum gets into the soil, vapors can sometimes build up in confined
spaces such as septic tanks, sewers, and basements. This raises the risk of explosion.
"So what's the big deal if a few gas tanks are leaking
hydrocarbons into the ground" might you ask? The issue first
surfaced when gases seeped up through the ground and built up during
the construction of the medical building on 415 North Crescent in
1981. The collected fumes resulted in an explosion. It was at that
time that the government stepped in to investigate the leaking fuel
tanks. On and off remediation at the site has been going on since
then and the case is currently still open. At one point 3,000,000
gallons of groundwater were pumped out under the station and after
filtering out the waste, a total of 550 gallons of liquid phase
hydrocarbons (a mixture of toxic chemicals) were removed from the
groundwater. Still however, the water is heavily contaminated.
According to Scott Deshefy, supervising environmental specialist from the
DEP, "One gallon of gasoline [from a leaking fuel tank] can contaminate millions of gallons of drinking
water." In this case, hundreds if not thousands of gallons of
fuel are in the groundwater near the water well. It is clear that
the fuel tanks have leaked substantial amounts of toxins into the
ground near the 76 station - enough to cause an explosion,
contaminate the low-depth groundwater, and cause the enforcement of
the proposition 65 mandate that the entire block be considered a
hazard and signs be posted notifying people that carcinogens are
present.
Perhaps an even more pressing issue is the possible contamination of
the deep groundwater. Within one block of the site lies a newly
constructed water treatment plant that pumps a quarter of all the
water used in Beverly Hills. City officials deny the possibility of
contamination by showing the differences in depth. The heavily
contaminated groundwater (which has most likely traveled laterally
to reach under the facility) is located about 50 feet below the
surface. The city water is pumped, however from 600 feet below the
ground. Many geologists claim that this difference would mean the
water 600 feet down would avoid contamination for hundreds of years
before the toxins leaked down from the fuel tanks. Geologists
contracted to survey the site claim that under the contaminated
toxic water lies a layer of impervious rock. Critics, however, such as Robert
Criss, a geologist at Washington University who studies pollution in California's aquifers says that
the notion that a few hundred feet from a well is going to save the
water supply is "ridiculous". "Our research,"
said Criss, "shows that 100 meters of lateral [horizontal] motion per year is not unusual." In one case, Criss says that in the city of
Sacramento, we can see water flowing 5 kilometers laterally. Other
geologists disagree saying that lateral movement is much easier for
the water than seeping down into the rock below. Criss goes on to
demonstrate where the hazard can arise: "When you pump water out, you create a 'cone of depression'
- a cone-shaped depression in the water table. In Sacramento, that cone is about 10 kilometers across; it underlies most of the city. As a result, the river 5 kilometers away is trying to spill in to fill this void."
Indeed gravity will eventually succeed in mixing the toxic
hydrocarbons from the contaminated groundwater near the surface. The
question is when.
Leaking underground fuel tanks are a huge problem, in fact seventy-six thousand leaking underground fuel tanks go unseen. As in one example, Stephenson, director of natural resources and environment of the General Accounting Office, told the lawmakers
about a school in Roselawn, Indiana, that discovered the children had been using and drinking water with 10 times the EPA's recommended safe limit of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Students at Beverly Hills High School
and fellow citizens of Beverly Hills could be facing the same problem and not know it. Stephenson also said
"the EPA believes, and we agree, that the law governing the tank program does not give the
[EPA] clear authority to regulate fuel suppliers." The EPA has provided limited funding, only about $187,000 per state, for dealing with the problem tanks.
The government regulations regarding leaking fuel
tanks are weak. The state has loosened gasoline spill cleanup rules. New rules decided on December 7th,
2003 made sure property owners will no longer be required to clean up "low risk" pollution from leaking underground tanks.
Legislation that is currently being pushed under a new energy bill
goes to help the oil companies even more by not making owners of
leaking underground fuel tanks responsible for cleaning up their
messes. This could mean that if a remedial action plan for the 76
station does not occur soon, they might avoid the large expenses of
cleaning the water under the station and the surrounding vicinity.
Instead, the city could be held accountable for the massive cleanup
that will be required to extinguish this possible threat to the
citizens of Beverly Hills.
The issue of leaking underground fuel tanks has concerned some
citizens such as Dennis Tanenbaum, who is trying to bring the issue
to the attention of the city so that they will enforce the 76
station to clean up the groundwater. Much is speculative, but the
dangers are undeniably present. Seeping gases could cause an
explosion and the toxins can possibly contaminate the water the
citizens of Beverly Hills drink. Even Beverly Hills High School had an underground fuel tank
beneath the school that was classified to
have been leaking but was removed in 1999. Is it the oil well lawsuit that has the city
scared to touch on this issue for fear of another lawsuit?
Regardless, citizens such as Tanenbaum are calling for the mess to
be cleaned up - and not at the expense of the taxpayers, but rather
at the expense of the 76 station that caused the mess in the first
place.
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