After enduring the now infamous “floods and fumes” of the last several months, Seal Beach’s Bridgeport residents must wait a little longer to hear when, and by which methods, the ARCO gas leak will be cleaned up. The Director of Orange County’s Division of Environmental Health, Richard Sanchez, told www.OC180NEWS.com “We’re hoping to get the CAP {corrective action plan} finalized, so they can start the work, some time—May—June, in that area.”

The sooner the better for the local residents who had to move out of their homes because of dangerous vapors under their slabs. According to Sanchez, a vapor extraction system was put in place after the leaks were discovered back in January 2009. This was good enough to allow the people to move back in, but was not a permanent solution to the problem.

The contamination under the ARCO station dates back at least to 1987 when the first of four leaks was discovered. There also were two leaks in the 1990’s, and again earlier this decade. But, it was not until January of last year that test wells indicated the plume of contamination had spread beyond the footprint of the station. Sanchez said the well test results led to the discovery of vapors in the homes and the evacuations last year.

According to Sanchez, “If the leak is not endangering, or putting at risk any ground water, and if the contamination isn’t moving, they’re {the state water board} ok with just leaving it.”

But, once the contamination plume began to spread under the four nearby homes, a new CAP was required. ARCO filed the new preliminary CAP and a 30 day public comment period ended this week. The City of Seal Beach, after receiving substantial input from a citizens’ technical advisory committee, requested the primary mitigation procedure be demolition of the gas station, full excavation of the site, and removal of all the contaminated soil.

The excavation approach, is but one of four possible methods to solve the problem, and, even though it is clearly what the city and residents want, it’s not the solution favored by ARCO.

The person in control, although he stopped short of saying he could order ARCO to clean up the site in a specific manner, is Richard Sanchez. Sanchez told www.OC180NEWS.com “We’re hoping to make a decision by April 19.” But, that’s not the end of it. Next, ARCO will file an amended CAP after considering the conclusions from the Orange County Environmental Health Division. If Sanchez doesn’t like the revised CAP, he can reject it and the process goes around and around again.

Also, ARCO has an appeal option above Sanchez. He said ”If ARCO was to say that they disagreed with our determination of the CAP, they could petition to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.”

Sanchez has not decided which remediation option he favors. He said “We’re still getting data, we’re still analyzing the residents’ comments, so whether or not excavation is going to occur, I can’t tell you that yet.” He added ”It probably will be a combination of some of the options that were presented.”

If demolition is chosen, it brings into question the four adjacent homes where contamination has already been identified. But Sanchez indicated even if the gas station is demolished, it doesn’t mean the homes would also need to go. “At this time, we don’t think so. The majority of the material is under the gas station site.”

Sanchez continued “They’re still gathering data to show us where the plume of the leakage is. We didn’t have that information when they prepared this CAP, so now we’re getting more information on where exactly it is in the neighborhood. I think we have enough data now to say that more than likely, it’s not going to extend further out than those four homes.”

Sanchez indicated his conclusions will be published on a state site which tracks underground tank leaks and what’s being done about them. He expects to post his conclusions by April 19. Click here to go to the site.