Cleanup Could Cost Firms $250 Million : Underground Tank Fixup Seeks Leaks

State law now requires that more than 10,000 underground tanks that store fuel and chemicals in San Diego County be tested for leaks and cleaned up, county officials said.

The testing measures and necessary cleanup could cost San Diego County firms as much as $250 million in the next five years, environmental experts predict.

The 1983 laws, which were designed to protect ground water from contamination, required tank owners to report the location and content of their tanks by last Jan. 1. State regulators have proposed that owners complete leakage tests by Jan. 1, 1986, but final approval by the Legislature is pending.

Most of the county’s underground storage tanks are at gas stations, and about 850 chemical tanks are at industrial firms. Underground fuel tanks at farms and homeowners’ heating oil tanks are exempt from the new laws. (An underground tank is defined as one whose volume is more than 10% below the surface.)

For about a year, the county Department of Health Services has been regulating the installation and removal of tanks, said Vicky Gallagher, senior hazardous materials specialist. About one of every four tanks removed is found to be leaking, Gallagher said.

“Sometimes it’s a very localized problem, and sometimes it has involved expensive cleanups,” she said.

The county found pools of gasoline from leaky tanks in the ground water in some places, Gallagher said, but no leaks were found to have entered drinking water wells. Extensive cleanups were required on Shelter Island and in Poway and Oceanside, Gallagher said.

Less than 10% of the drinking water in the county comes from ground water supplies, a spokesman for the county Water Authority said.

Major oil companies began replacing old underground tanks five years ago, but service station dealers are still “fairly ignorant” about the new laws and who is responsible for compliance, said Steve Shelton, executive director of the Southern California Service Station Assn. About 230 San Diego County dealers belong to the association, which has 1,300 members.

“There’s a bit of legislative overkill in this area, with federal, state and local agencies getting involved,” Shelton said. “People are not clear on what is supposed to be done and by when--and also, by whom.”

The retailers, who usually lease the gas station--including the underground tanks--from a major oil company, “generally feel that underground storage tanks are something that’s out of their control,” Shelton said.

In other states, oil companies have tried to sell the tanks to dealers or force them to install their own, Shelton said. Dealers face an additional problem because insurance companies do not provide adequate coverage for underground leaks, he said.

“It’s not an easy issue for anybody,” Shelton said. “There’s thousands and thousands of old, rusty leaks under the ground.”

The Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that up to 25% of California’s 150,000 underground storage tanks leak, usually from damage caused by rust.

“Now we have a major problem--a problem not easily corrected,” said Dale Sands, vice president of McKesson Environmental Services, an engineering consulting firm. Most steel tanks are not corrosion-resistant and half can be expected to leak after 16 years of use, Sands said. Fiberglass tanks often pose problems because they may crack when they are rolled into place, he said.

Only 10% of the time does leakage enter the water supply, Sands said. Once the contaminants have entered the ground water, he said, cleanup costs may reach hundreds of thousands of dollars--even millions, if legal settlements with residents are involved. Just one gallon of leakage has the potential to contaminate 1 million gallons of ground water.

“ ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ doesn’t work,” Sands said.

Once the state regulations are in effect, tank owners in San Diego County will have to test their tanks and maintain a monitoring system before they can obtain an operating permit. Testing methods include drilling wells to test the ground water, sampling the surrounding soil, and inserting a gauge into the tanks to test for escape of fuel or chemicals.

The new law also requires that tanks be built with two shells, to guard against leaks. For each violation, the law sets daily fines of $500 to $5,000.