You don’t have to look across the country to find complaints with BP/ARCO pollution clean up—we have it right here in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Old Town Seal Beach. At the community meeting yesterday, it sounded like a microcosm of what is happening in the Gulf. Complete with angry and frustrated residents, seemingly continuing delays, and governmental officials somewhat impotent to make it happen right away, Bridgeport Seal Beach could have been any small town along the gulf coast.

According to community resident and activist Robert Goldberg, there were about 80 people in attendance at this most recent of a series of meetings to discuss the clean up plans for the ARCO gas station located at 490 Pacific Coast Highway, Seal Beach. . Based on many comments at the meeting, including from the third party facilitator, this was the largest of several recent meetings. As residents restlessly await finalization of the so called corrective action plan, CAP, tempers and frustration with BP/ARCO are steadily increasing.

“This is the biggest group of people we’ve had. You’re not wearing us out. This group is outraged and it’s getting bigger and bigger. We’re not going to go away,” said one resident at the meeting.

Although problems with gas leaks at this station have been going on for many years, this most recent issue began last fall when vapors were detected beyond the parameter of the gas station property. The situation was so bad late last year, residents of four nearby homes had to temporarily evacuate. Now, the controversy is centered on which method should be used by ARCCO to clean up the pollution.

With the exception of BP/ARCO and one resident, everyone else involved—the residents, the City of Seal Beach, the Orange County Department of Environmental Health, and the Regional Water Quality Board—wants BP/ARCO to demolish the gas station, dig up the contaminated soil, and truck it away. But, despite months of testing, analysis, and contemplation, BP/ARCO so far has been unwilling to commit to making the “dig and haul” solution the center piece of their plan.

Timing might be running out on BP/ARCO. Their response to the county is due June 19. At that time, BP/ARCO must file their revised corrective action plan with the county. The new plan must meet the two primary criteria of timeliness and certainty. Today Richard Sanchez, Director of Environmental Health, told www.OC180NEWS.com “Certainly, by all indications , dig and haul, at least in some format, meets those criteria—timeliness and certainty—and so, we would expect the revised CAP to have some level of dig and haul—because it meets those criteria, or some other technology that meets those two criteria. I’m not aware of any, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

So far, BP/ARCO has been evasive with regard to their plans. Company spokesman Darryl Fah said during his presentation at the Wednesday meeting “Dig and haul is very much on the table.” But even though their revised corrective action plan is due in about three weeks, he is quick to add “We’re also evaluating new technology. The new technology we’re looking at is called electrical resistance heating—very promising—we’re still taking a look at that.

In our interview today with Richard Sanchez, we asked him about this technology and he said it has not been used in Orange County. “We have not had any discussion with ARCO on that.”

The concern is that ARCO could present this new approach in their revised CAP and this could in turn drag out the process even further. “If they come up with something that meets those criteria{timeliness and certainty}, we would have to look at it,” said Sanchez. But he sounded determined to bring the process to a conclusion. He said he did not have the statutory authority to set a drop dead date, but
“I can’t say definitively, but we’re not looking at this process going on for another six months.”

If Sanchez rejects another submission by BP/ARCO, the company can appeal to the Regional Water Quality Board and they can override the County officials. But Sanchez has already prepared for that possibility. “If they appeal to the regional board, they already know what they are going to get back because we’re working with the regional quality board on our response.”