15 Refineries Ordered to Test Soil, Water : Chevron Hydrocarbon Leak Spurs Action to Curb Contaminants

Spurred by recent discoveries of extensive off-site hydrocarbon leakage and ground water contamination at the Chevron USA Inc. refinery in El Segundo, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board on Monday ordered all Southern California refineries to begin testing on and off their plant sites for possible ground water and soil contamination.

The order requires the 15 refineries affected to submit plans within 30 days and gives them 90 days to complete the investigations. Refineries finding contamination of either ground water or the soil are required to begin cleanup immediately.

Testing is under way at Chevron and the Golden West Refinery in Santa Fe Springs. Chevron acknowledged last month that a hydrocarbon pool--described by a refinery official as a “gasoline mud pie”--had been leaking for some time in El Segundo. Golden West has been testing since last November, when Santa Fe Springs officials discovered hydrocarbons leaking from that refinery.

3 Others Suspected

According to Raymond K. Delacourt, senior water resource control engineer for the board, three other refineries are suspected of having possible ground water contamination. They are the Atlantic Richfield Co.’s Watson refinery in Carson, Texaco Inc. in Long Beach and Shell Oil Co. in Wilmington.

Refinery representatives, acknowledging the need for the studies and possible cleanup, protested what they called the stringent time frames set by the board.

“To expect quality, comprehensive studies in 90 days is totally unrealistic,” Chevron spokesman William Graessley told the board, which is in charge of protecting ground water supplies in Southern California. Such studies, Graessley said, could take a year or more.

In response to complaints by refiners, the board later amended its order to allow executive officer Robert P. Ghirelli to grant extensions of the study deadlines. It also said that if a refiner wants to take more than double the 90 days to complete its studies, it will have to go before the full board for approval.

Chevron, the largest of the refiners affected by the order, has estimated that the studies alone will cost about $3 million.

“It costs about $20,000 to drop one observation well (to monitor the ground water),” another Chevron spokesman, Jim Edmisson, said. “And for the kind of study they want, we’ll need about 150 wells.”

Edmisson said that in addition to the observation wells, the refinery will have to drill wells to monitor vapors in the soil and take core samples of the soil. These tests will have to be analyzed at a private laboratory.

“There’s no question these studies are going to cost megabucks, but they’ve got to be done,” Delacourt said. “We want to avoid any more surprises like Chevron.”

Besides the leakage in El Segundo, the Chevron plant is also suspected as the source of hydrocarbon vapors recently discovered in Manhattan Beach. While only low levels of the vapors were found in El Segundo, highly explosive levels of the fumes were found along a portion of the beachfront in Manhattan Beach. Last weekend, Chevron officials put asphalt over an 8-foot-wide, 200-foot-long stretch of beach after readings there showed vapor levels at 95,000 parts per million. Gasoline-based hydrocarbons can explode at 14,000 ppm.

Delacourt said that although the high readings in Manhattan Beach constitute the most immediate danger, the board is also concerned with future water supplies in ordering the studies.

Southern California, which draws about 25% of its water needs from the Colorado River, will not have access to those supplies by 1990.

By then, Delacourt said, “we may have to start using that ground water (under refineries) for non-drinking uses such as irrigation, industry and recreation. If that water has been contaminated by petroleum products, we have to get it cleaned up.”

In addition to the five refineries that either have or are suspected of having hydrocarbon leakage problems, these plants were ordered to make the studies:

Edgington Oil Co., Long Beach; Fletcher Oil and Refining, Carson; Golden Eagle Oil Co., Carson; MacMillan Ring-Free Oil Co., Carson; Mobil Oil Corp., Torrance; Newhall Oil Co., Newhall; Paramount Petroleum Co., Paramount; Powerine Oil, Santa Fe Springs; Union Oil Co., San Pedro, and Western Fuel Oil Co., San Pedro.