A county health official said the decontamination of the former Seal Beach ARCO gas station site is under way.
Richard Sanchez, of the Orange County Health Care Agency, said there have been minor delays due to rain during a Friday, Nov. 18 interview. “They’re now shoveling out the dirt that has the contamination,” Sanchez said.
He said the Health Care Agency would expect to know in the next couple of months if the contamination has spread beyond the worksite.
The ARCO/BP America property is located on Pacific Coast Highway, near the residential neighborhood of Bridgeport in Seal Beach. The underground storage tanks that were located beneath the station had leaked at least twice since the 1980s.
However, the county considered the site decontaminated for years—until the summer of 2009, when traces of gasoline vapors were detected in the soil under the gas station and under some of the Bridgepeort homes near the gas station.
The discovery led to the temporary evacuation of four Seal Beach homes during the 2009 holiday season.
Bridgeport residents, even those living outside the “study zone” near the gas station, expressed concern that their property values would go down. Legally, Bridgeport property sellers would have to disclose the fact that their houses are located near a toxic site.
A consultant hired by ARCO first proposed using chemicals to remove the toxic chemicals from under the gas station.
That proposal received no support from the public.
In fact, many Bridgeport residents staged demonstrations in front of the gas station in April, June and July of 2010. The demonstrators called for evacuation of the contaminated soil, a process also known as “dig and haul.”
Then the consultant proposed using electricity to heat the contaminated soil and underground water to cook out the contamination.
That proposal received no support, either.
Coincidentally, a few residents of Bridgeport happened to work in the environmental remediation field. They formed the Bridgeport Technical Advisory Committee. The committee recommended excavation.
The “dig and haul” option also received support from the Seal Beach City Council. Ultimately, the county Health Care Agency directed ARCO to use the “dig and haul” method of cleaning up the toxic waste site. The California Coastal Commission waived a coastal development permit for the decontamination project on Wednesday, March 9, 2011.
The ARCO station was demolished Monday, April 11.
When it was in business, the ARCO station consistently ranked among the top 25 sales tax revenue producing businesses in Seal Beach. See related story, “Seal Beach sales tax revenues rise in second quarter,” page 21.
