By Charles M. Kelly
The Bridgeport Technical Advisory Committee presented its arguments for excavating the Pacific Coast Highway ARCO gas station site on Wednesday, Aug. 4.
The previous week, ARCO/BP officials presented their arguments for decontaminating the site by cooking the contaminated soil and ground water at the site.
The underground storage tanks at the ARCO station on PCH has leaked at least twice since the 1980s. Gasoline vapors were detected in the soil near Bridgeport homes last summer.
County officials were scheduled to announce a decision about plans for decontaminating the site sometime Tuesday, Aug. 10. The Sun Newspaper goes to press on Tuesday.
At the Wednesday, Aug. 4 meeting, representatives of the Orange County Health Care Agency, the city of Seal Beach and the Regional Water Quality Control Board met with the TAC and other Bridgeport area residents to discuss ARCO’s proposed corrective action plan for the site.
“I think it was pretty much more of the same of what you’ve heard in the past,” said Ray Zeoli, a member of the Technical Advisory Committee.
Bridgeport residents in general, as well as the members of the TAC, have consistently advocating the “dig and haul” option for the site.
The city of Seal Beach recently cent the county a letter calling for the “dig and haul” option.
Zeoli said he thought the county wanted to give the TAC the same opportunity to make its case that Health Care Agency officials had given to ARCO/BP.
On Wedensday, July 28, ARCO/BP representatives met with local and state officials to argue in favor of electrical heat resistance—basically, cooking toxic chemicals out of the dirt—at the offices of the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Richard Sanchez, of the OC Health Care Agency, said the members of Bridgeport’s Technical Advisory Committee expressed support for excavating the site—a process commonly known as “dig and haul.”
Sanchez said the agency would announce its decision regarding the clean up plan on Tuesday, Aug. 10.
“I think we’re looking at ‘dig and haul’,” Zeoli said.
