ARCO submits cleanup plan to Orange County
Atlantic Richfield Company recently sent county health officials a plan for decontaminating the ARCO gas station at Pacific Coast Highway and 5th Street in Seal Beach’s Bridgeport neighborhood.
ARCO’s consultant, Stantec, sent the remedial action plan to the Orange County Health Care Agency on Thursday, Sept. 30. According to the report, ARCO’s consultant anticipates the county health agency will approve the remedial action plan by Oct. 15.
Work on the site will take place after the California Coastal Commission issues a permit, which requires a number of other agencies to issue permits first.
The plan calls for excavation, or “digging and hauling,” as the county health agency directed on Aug. 10.
However, the project will require permits from a number of city, county, regional and state agencies before excavation begins.
“Stantec and (Atlantic Richfield Company) met with representatives of the CCC in Long Beach, California on September 16, 2010 to discuss CCC permitting requirements,” wrote Principal Engineer Justin L. Hawkins, who prepared the remedial action plan for Stantec.
Coastal Commission staff told ARCO representatives that a CCC permit would require approval of the remedial action play by the Orange County Health agency and approval from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.
According to Hawkins’ document, permits will also require county health agency permits to remove underground storage tanks and other gas station equipment, a South Coast Air Quality Management District specific plan, Seal Beach demolition and traffic permits, a Caltrans traffic permit and “an access agreement for work to be performed on PCH Plaza property.”
The PCH Plaza is located north of the gas station.
The plaza is a mixed use restaurant and retail business center.
The decontamination effort will also require a “negative declaration,” required under the California Environmental Quality Act, which states the project does not require an environmental impact report.
According to Hawkins, the Orange County Health Care Agency is responsible for drafting the negative declaration.
The action plan points out that the gas station will have to be vacated and demolished before work begins. According to the document, the operator has already received notice that the lease will expire on Nov. 23.
“When the current operator vacates the Site all remaining fuel will be removed from the (underground storage tank) system and a 6-foot high chain link fence will be installed around the property,” Hawkins wrote.
Before excavation starts, the plan calls for “dewatering the site.” Among other things, this will reportedly reduce the wait of the soil being trucked out of the area.
According to Hawkins, ARCO expects to apply for a Coastal Commission permit by Oct. 30. If approved, ARCO could begin expanding soil vapor extraction by Jan. 10, 2011. Actual excavation would begin May 16, 2011.
Underground storage tanks at the Bridgeport area gas station have leaked at least twice since the 1980s. The county health agency had considered the site decontaminated until traces of gasoline vapors were found in the soil of the residential homes nearest the gas station in the summer of 2009.
ARCO originally advocated using chemicals to remove toxic chemicals from the soil and ground water in the area. Then ARCO advocated using electricity to cook the pollutants out of the Bridgeport soil. However, Bridgeport residents, members of Bridgeport’s Technical Advisory Committee, the Seal Beach City Council and the Orange County Health Care Agency all called for “digging and hauling” the contaminated soil from the site.
