Trouble Underground : Owners Test Thousands of Tanks, Clean Up Leaks That Pose Threat of Contamination to Water Supplies : TANKS: Owners Clean Up Toxic Spillage From Containers

Things are looking up for Sunny Sunshine.

Fuel leaks were discovered at his “Car Wash of the Stars” in 1985, and for two years Sunshine has pumped unleaded gasoline from ground water beneath the West Hollywood business.

But fuel vapors that prompted 20 nearby families to flee their homes abated long ago.

And Sunshine says he now thinks his $6-million insurance policy will cover the costs of cleaning up the contaminated plume of ground water that flows 900 feet down a hillside from his Santa Palm Car Wash on Santa Monica Boulevard to the homes on Huntley Drive.

190 Cases Discovered

“I’m praying a lot, let me tell you,” Sunshine said. “My insurance has spent in excess of $3 million already. And this (cleanup) will take another three to five years. So it’s going to be very close.”

The Santa Palm case, though extraordinarily expensive, demonstrates the hidden threat posed by leaking underground storage tanks. Even a small leak can cost a tank owner hundreds of thousands of dollars while exposing neighbors to noxious vapors and contaminated water.

It is also typical in many ways of 190 leak cases discovered throughout the Westside over the last four years, as owners of 3,500 to 4,500 subterranean tanks have begun to test and monitor them as required under a 1983 law.

As at the car wash, most of the leaks have developed in gasoline tanks or piping, often in residential neighborhoods.

And, as at Santa Palm, the toxic chemicals have often sunk through the soil to the ground water.

Leaks in about 60% of the Westside cases have polluted ground water with fuels or solvents that state and local officials say may have sunk into drinking-water supplies.

In the Santa Palm case, contamination is apparently confined to a shallow water basin only a few feet deep, state investigators say.

Half of Wells Contaminated

How much leaking tanks have contributed to the Santa Monica Basin’s serious pollution problem is unclear, but state officials say ruptured tanks are generally a main source of water contamination.

The upper regional aquifer of the Santa Monica Basin, which underlies much of the Westside, is so contaminated it is no longer used for public supplies. And pollution has seeped past the natural protection of thick clay layers into deeper aquifers.

Six of Santa Monica’s 12 water wells, all pumping from two deep aquifers, are contaminated with a degreasing solvent from an unknown source that is believed to be capable of causing cancer in humans. Four wells have been closed, costing the city about 15% of its water supply and forcing the purchase of imported water at triple the price of well water, city officials say.

Santa Monica, which still gets about 35% of its drinking water from wells, is the only area city that pumps from Westside wells.

Though serious tank-leak cases have been discovered on the Westside, the extent of the problem is only now being defined.

Los Angeles city and county officials, who oversee tank testing for all of the Westside except Santa Monica, say the number of leaks detected in the area could soar during the next year. The county’s deadline for testing and monitoring tanks is mid-1989, the city’s, mid-1990.

Los Angeles officials, who only began to require tank testing July 1, say that as many as 2,000 more leaking tanks could be discovered citywide.

Even now, Carl Sjoberg, director of the county tank inspection program, said, “we’ve got (leaks) all over the place. I don’t even keep them in my head any more. There’s too many of them.”

More than 1,300 have been reported countywide, according to state records.

Through the end of July, 108 leak cases had been reported in Westside communities that are part of the city of Los Angeles, including Venice, Hollywood, Pacific Palisades and the area near Los Angeles International Airport.

Twenty-one cases had been reported in Santa Monica, 15 each in Culver City and West Hollywood, 12 in Malibu and 9 in Marina Del Rey.

30% of Tanks Tested

Countywide, about 30% of underground tanks have been tested and also comply with local ordinances that require electronic monitoring to detect new leaks.

This compares with about 25% compliance in Los Angeles and 95% in Santa Monica. Long Beach, Vernon and Torrance are the only other cities in the county that chose to enforce tank laws themselves. The county runs the tank program in unincorporated areas and in 80 cities.

Ground-water cleanups in Los Angeles and Ventura counties are supervised by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in Los Angeles.

Santa Monica, where about 330 of 350 tanks have been tested and are monitored for leaks, has been so successful in forcing compliance because the city took a 1985 state deadline seriously, said city tank-program Director Jennifer Stone.

Likewise, nearly all of the 22 underground tanks owned by Santa Monica have been replaced with double-walled containers in a $500,000 program, city officials said.

Los Angeles County has been slower to enforce tank laws than some counties and cities, Sjoberg said, partly because its Fire Department, which protects 43 cities, had no inventory of tanks when the state law was passed. A 1984 list supplied by the state did not include about 15,000 of the 33,000 tanks then in the county’s jurisdiction, he said.

‘Still Finding Tanks’

“We’re still finding tanks,” he said. “Every time I drive down the street, I spot a place that’s not on our list. A (tank owner) came in the other day and said, ‘Hey, I just found nine more.’ ”

Los Angeles officials said it has taken four years to gear up because of a slow-moving political process, a state inventory that included only half of the city’s 15,000 tanks and a worker shortage that made it impossible to do much more than oversee the removal of tanks.

Quick leak detection and cleanup are important, water officials say, because delays allow contaminants to spread, increasing costs and the chance that chemicals will sink into drinking-water basins.

Though generally slow-starting, Westside tank testing has found clusters of leaks in the industrial zones of Culver City, West Los Angeles and near Los Angeles International Airport, where aerospace and high-tech industries are concentrated.

Leaks have been discovered at fire stations and a Sheriff’s Department office, at auto dealerships and hospitals, at a bakery and a produce market, at dry cleaners and development companies, at the Marina City Club and Paramount Studios.

But leaks were also found along quiet residential streets in Westside communities, many at neighborhood service stations. Ninety of the 190 Westside leaks were at service stations.

Solvents Most Serious

Twenty-two Westside leaks, nearly all involving solvents at industrial sites or gasoline at service stations, are among the 140 cases regarded as most serious by engineers at the regional water board.

In at least 10 of those cases, solvents and gasoline have been found in ground-water plumes that extend beyond tank owners’ properties.

At Malibu Point, for example, a service station tank leaked 5,200 gallons of gasoline into shallow ground water, and the polluted water has moved under Malibu Colony Road onto a vacant lot near the exclusive beach community.

At Melrose and Highland avenues, another gas station leak has left high concentrations of fuel in shallow ground water immediately next to homes and flowing in their direction.

At the new Ma Maison Sofitel Hotel on Beverly Boulevard, builders had to remove oily ground water to construct a subterranean garage. Across the street a 5,000-gallon gas leak was discovered, and at a second nearby location, heating oil from a leaking tank was found in ground water. Investigators say no link has been established between the leaks and the polluted water at the hotel site.

In Culver City, extremely high levels of flammable solvents have been confirmed in a shallow test well at an electrical plating company only a few feet from homes on Hayden Avenue.

Toxic Plume Found

And in West Hollywood, on the hillside immediately below Sunny Sunshine’s car wash, another toxic plume from another leaking underground fuel tank--this one at a Rapid Transit District service yard--has been discovered. The plume, say state investigators, has been traced to homes down the slope from the RTD yard.

Such toxic plumes have prompted fears that petroleum vapors may seep into homes, as occurred near the Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo in 1985, following undetected leaks of millions of barrels of fuel.

They have also raised legal questions about liability and have sometimes stalled cleanups because of neighbors’ reluctance to allow testing to determine the extent of contamination.

If tests show that the adjoining properties are polluted, owners must declare the potential hazard when they sell their real estate. Financial institutions and escrow companies increasingly require assurance from government agencies that environmental problems have been resolved.

“The real estate people call us every day. They’re very much concerned about how clean is clean. They want us to sign off,” said Hank Yacoub, supervising toxics engineer for the regional water quality board.

To help property sellers who are willing to pay for immediate cleanups, Yacoub said he has directed board engineers to quickly evaluate such cases. Giving the cases a high priority is significant because board engineers each have at least four times as many cases as they can adequately supervise, he said.

The board’s backlog, however, has created problems in cases that do not involve the sale of property or are not serious enough to require immediate attention, the county’s Sjoberg said.

“In a few cases, we’ve pursued the cleanup even though it was a (water board) case, because the (owners) had been sitting there with a hole in the ground for a good six months--sitting there waiting for somebody to make up their mind what to do,” he said.

Costly for Businesses

Although testing on the Westside has uncovered significant environmental threats, it has also demonstrated how costly it can be for small businesses to comply with the tank law, especially when a problem is detected.

Karl Brand, longtime operator of Santa Monica Produce who still owns the 10th Street site, says he has spent $90,000 to remove a leaky 500-gallon gasoline tank, dig a 24-foot-deep hole and haul away 10 truckloads of contaminated soil.

And apparently his cleanup is just beginning.

Tests last spring found water pollution, so Brand’s case has been referred to the regional water board, which routinely requires at least a series of test wells to determine the seriousness of the problem.

“I have no idea what it will all cost,” said Brand, 59, who expects it to put “a hell of a dent” in his family’s assets.

The leak sneaked up on Brand, he said. He’d always kept close track of the amount of gas bought and pumped, and it had always jibed. “So it leaked very little, but in had been leaking for a very long time,” he said.

City officials, toxic consultants and lawyers all tell similar stories.

‘They’re Shocked’

A client of attorney Barry Groveman, an elderly woman who owns property on which a Santa Monica dry cleaner sits, learned this year that she is responsible for cleaning up solvents that leaked from the shop into a regional water basin.

“She’s terrorized by the thought that her lifetime could be wiped out by something she had nothing to do with,” Groveman said. “This property was to be her annuity in her later years. You feel for these people. They come in, and they’re crying. They’re shocked. And they did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Costs so far are about $100,000, he said.

Westside cities and public utilities have also had to deal with the expense of tank testing and cleanup.

General Telephone has found four leaks at its Westside facilities, and Southern California Gas Co. has had three in the area. In separate ground-water cases, GTE is still recovering fuel leaked in Santa Monica in 1985 and near Malibu’s Carbon Beach in 1986.

Cities throughout the area have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to test and monitor their own tanks--or to remove them to eliminate the possibility of a costly cleanup.

$100,000 Spent

Clean Santa Monica has spent nearly $100,000 to remove three tanks at the city airport, to clean contaminated soil and to determine that the contamination was caused by fuel spills, not by the tanks themselves.

The Culver City Redevelopment Agency has changed the way it approaches real estate deals because of the threat of contamination from tanks and other sources, agency officials said.

Since 1986, the agency has included a provision in its purchase contracts that holds former property owners liable if hazardous wastes are discovered.

Redevelopment lawyers, in one of two active tank-leak cases, are trying to recover $83,000 the city spent on cleanup after finding leaks at an old muffler shop acquired in 1986 at Sepulveda and Jefferson boulevards.

Minor Contamination

The city will also spend an undetermined amount to treat polluted ground water at the muffler shop, but the contamination appears to be minor compared to the areawide problem, staffer Debbie Rich said.

“According to our consultant, there is contamination in the ground water in that entire area,” she said.

One pollution source, a few blocks away, is the former Hughes Helicopters Inc. facility, a state Superfund site where a $10-million, 20-year cleanup is just beginning.

Howard Hughes Properties, whose 412-acre site extends west from the San Diego Freeway to Lincoln Boulevard, expects to pump extensive amounts of gasoline and solvents leaked from tanks, drums and sumps out of the ground water, a spokeswoman said.

None of the pollution has migrated off the Hughes property, she said.

State officials say that Hughes’ pollution has reached the upper regional aquifer at a depth of about 40 feet. And a state Superfund document says the pollution might reach the area’s main drinking-water aquifer, which merges with the polluted upper aquifer near the coast.

Hughes says, however, that its tests show the pollution has not reached a drinking-water aquifer and will not.

Jet Fuel Contamination

About 2 miles south of Hughes, jet fuel up to 5-feet thick has contaminated ground water beneath huge storage tanks at Los Angeles International Airport.

Tests have shown that the upper regional aquifer has experienced “gross contamination,” apparently from leaks in underground pipes or the above-ground storage tanks, according to the water board.

Several fuel leaks from the airport’s 288 underground fuel storage tanks have also been detected, though only 27 of the tanks have been tested and are monitored for leaks as the law requires, a recent airport study says.

North of the airport and the Hughes property--in an industrial section of Santa Monica near Centinela Avenue and Olympic Boulevard--are four of that city’s six polluted water wells.

Solvent contamination from 7 to 200 times the state safety level has been found in the wells since the problem was discovered in 1980, Water Supt. Bob Harvey said.

Over the years, Santa Monica has drilled a series of test wells in a six-block circle around the water wells to find the source of the pollution, Harvey said.

“We found the whole area around there was contaminated,” he said. “There is a lot of contamination in the upper aquifer area.”

Old Landfills

No one knows for sure where the pollution came from, but Stone, coordinator of the city tank-testing program, said “the general impression” is that seven old landfills, including one on the state Superfund list, are a chief source. Long-departed industries, such as a large aircraft engine repair plant, are also suspected of indiscriminate dumping of toxics, she said.

“With time, that all leaks down to the lower aquifers,” Stone said.

Tests in 1980 that showed the drinking-water aquifers had been penetrated surprised Harvey, because they are protected by an 80-foot-thick blue-brown layer of clay, “an ideal clay that’s supposed to stop anything in the upper aquifer from getting to the lower ones,” he said.

In addition to the clay, Santa Monica encased its main water wells in concrete to 200 feet, but contaminants still reached its water supply.

“A long time ago, there used to be a lot of farm and private wells, and when they weren’t abandoned properly they had a straw effect, with water from the upper aquifers dropping into the lower aquifers,” Harvey explained.

For seven years, the city’s four wells that are contaminated beyond state safety levels were used sporadically, then finally closed last year, Harvey said.

Santa Monica is planning a $400,000 water purification system, which within one year would allow it to reopen three of the four wells, he said.

WESTSIDE LEAKING TANKS: SOME MAJOR CASES

Since 1983, leaking underground storage tanks have been discovered at 190 locations throughout the Westside, including 108 in the city of Los Angeles, 21 in Santa Monica, 15 each in Culver City and West Hollywood, 12 in Malibu, 9 in Marina Del Rey and 6 in Beverly Hills.

Twenty-two Westside leaks, nearly all involving solvents at industrial sites or gasoline at service stations, are among the 140 cases considered most serious by engineers for the state regional water board in Los Angeles. More than 1,300 leak cases have been reported countywide.

HUGHES HELICOPTERS INC. 6775 Centinela Ave., Los Angeles Howard Hughes Properties expects to spend $10 million defining and cleaning up contamination on its 412-acre site west of Culver City. Over 20 years, the company plans to pump extensive amounts of gasoline and solvents leaked from underground tanks, drums and sumps out of ground water. State officials say pollution has reached a regional aquifer and could threaten the area’s main drinking-water basin. Hughes says tests show contaminants are no threat to drinking-water aquifers. THE MICA CORP. 3583 Hayden Ave., Culver City High levels of flammable solvents have been found in shallow test wells, including one next to a residential area on Hayden Avenue. Mica, a small electrical plating company, is pumping polluted water into trucks and must set up a permanent treatment system. Wells are planned to learn whether contaminants in the 1986 case have moved under homes and other neighbors’ properties. LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 1 World Way, Los Angeles Jet fuel up to 5 feet thick has contaminated ground water beneath LAX. Tests since discovery in 1987 have revealed “gross contamination” of a regional aquifer, apparently from leaks in underground pipes and huge above-ground storage tanks. Leaks from two nearby underground tanks have also reached the aquifer, and several other buried tanks have leaked. Pollution has not reached the area’s drinking-water aquifer, investigators say. The airport will force testing of all 288 airport tanks and plans a multimillion-dollar cleanup of water and soil pollution. SANTA PALM CAR WASH 8787 Santa Monica Blvd.,

West Hollywood At least 1,500 gallons of gasoline that leaked from tank piping has contributed to a 900-foot ground water plume down a hillside. Twenty families briefly fled nearby homes in 1985 because of noxious fuel vapors, but investigators said there was no health danger. The insurance company for the “Car Wash of the Stars” may spend $6 million in continuing cleanup of soil and water. Other pollution sources are also suspected. A second fuel plume from a tank at an RTD yard has been found between the car wash and hillside homes. SHELL STATION 6536 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles A gas-station leak at Melrose and Highland avenues has left high concentrations of fuel in ground water immediately adjacent to homes and moving slowly in their direction. State water officials have ordered test wells drilled on adjacent properties in the 2-year-old case.

GTE 2902 Exposition Blvd., Santa Monica GTE has pumped leaked gasoline from ground water since 1985. The plume of contamination, whose boundaries have not been identified, may have moved off site, city officials say. Located in the city’s industrial section, the facility is near four municipal water wells closed by an areawide problem of solvent pollution. No link exists between GTE contaminants and the closed wells, officials say. CONSOLIDATED FILM INDUSTRIES 959 Seward St., Hollywood When testing for contamination from a leaking diesel tank, the film processing company discovered a variety of solvents in ground water. The company says none of its solvent tanks have leaked, so pollution must have migrated from another location. Water officials have ordered more tests to define extent of contamination and the direction of its flow. CHEVRON STATION 23614 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu About 5,200 gallons of leaked gasoline has moved in ground water under Malibu Colony Road and is beneath a vacant lot about 100 feet away. Sale of that lot has been held up, pending cleanup. Pumping almost since discovery in 1982, Chevron has recovered more than 1,600 gallons of gasoline. Requests to test for pollution at nearby beach community were denied, water officials say.

TEXACO STATION 3201 Wilshire Blvd.,

Los Angeles A layer of gasoline once 3 feet thick is being pumped from atop ground water at the station at Vermont Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard. Soil is being cleaned by a system that sucks vapors out of soil and burns them. High levels of pollution have been found at edges of station property. EASTMAN KODAK CO. 6677 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles Investigators say cleanup in the 1985 case has been slow because Kodak balked at removing pollution it insists comes from other locations. The company acknowledges a small solvent leak, but says it has never stored gasoline that is floating on ground water. Two nearby service stations that are possible sources are testing their tanks for leaks, investigators say. MOBIL STATION 8489 W. Beverly Blvd.,

Los Angeles An improperly installed new tank allowed 5,000 gallons of gasoline to leak into shallow ground water in 1986. At a second location nearby, where a new office building has been constructed, heating oil from another tank is still being pumped from ground water. Both properties are near the new Ma Maison Sofitel Hotel, where builders extensively pumped oily ground water to allow construction of a subterranean garage two years ago. No link has been established, investigators say.