Anaheim : City, Mobil Oil to Share Cost of Replacing Wells

The city and Mobil Oil Co. have agreed to split the $2.5-million cost of building at least three new drinking water wells to replace those near a 1982 gasoline spill, city officials announced Thursday.

Once the new water wells are built, the city plans to close down the three wells that have been monitored since September, 1982, when a Mobil distribution terminal at 6507 Jefferson St. leaked more than 37,450 gallons of gasoline into the ground and ultimately into the city’s drinking water supply.

One of the three wells, located about one-quarter mile west and southwest of Mobil’s Atwood Terminal, has been closed on and off because of contamination, city spokesman Steven Reifel said. At least two others have been monitored continuously for spread of the gasoline in the ground water.

“The wells are downgradient of the spill site and provide a significant source of domestic water for the city,” according to a Regional Water Quality Control Board report issued last April.

Because city wells are so close to the spill site, the constant pumping of water could potentially draw the gasoline closer to the water table if workers continue to draw drinking water from those wells.

In an agreement reached Tuesday, but not announced until Thursday, the city and Mobil agreed that the oil company will pay two-thirds of the $2.5-million project, and the city will pay the remainder.

Water quality officials have said that most of an estimated 175,000 gallons of contaminants lost in 44 underground leaks in the county through early 1985--ranging from gasoline to jet fuel to industrial solvents and acids--has seeped into the ground-water table.

But the leakage at Mobil’s Atwood terminal is the worst case of contamination of drinking water supplies in the county, regional water quality officials have said.