Downey Oldsmobile Dealer Cleans Up Waste Oil

An automobile dealer has complied with an order to clean up waste oil that drained into the ground behind his dealership, officials said.

A private contractor hired by Nowling Oldsmobile removed about four cubic yards of contaminated soil from behind the Firestone Boulevard dealership, said Sal Molleda, county hazardous materials specialist. The dirt, which weighed 4 to 5 tons, was hauled away last week to the Casmalia toxic-waste dump near Santa Maria, said a spokesman for International Waste Transport, the Westminster firm that removed the soil.

The oil penetrated no deeper than about 6 feet, and ground water was not contaminated, Molleda said. A municipal water well is about 150 feet from the back of the shop. “They have complied with our requirements,” Molleda said. “They took care of it in a professional way.”

Complaint by Resident

The county Department of Health Services ordered the cleanup last June after health officials, responding to a resident’s complaint, found small pools of yellowish-green liquid and blackened dirt. They also found a pipe extending from the back wall of Nowling’s service shop.

Bill Jones, chief of investigations for the health department’s hazardous-materials control program, said the case would be forwarded to the district attorney’s office for possible prosecution. Illegal dumping of waste oil, considered low-level hazardous waste, could be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,000 to $25,000 for each day the violation occurred, officials said. Jones added, however, that oil “is treated on a lower priority, compared with other chemicals.”

Russell Nowling, who owns the dealership, said he probably spent $2,500 to $3,000 to clean up the waste oil. He said he did not know when the drain pipe from the back of the service shop had been installed, but he believes it had not been used recently. The dealer has removed the pipe and no significant ground contamination was found there, officials said.

“Just having the pipe,” Molleda said. “There was a bad feeling about the pipe.”

Beside Repair Shop

Most of the contaminated soil was discovered off to one side of the repair shop, where shallow black and rust-colored gullies passed under a fence that separated a work area from the grass and dirt lot.

The dealership has contractors pick up waste oil and other liquids, Nowling said. Molleda said the dealer presented manifests indicating waste oil and used paint thinner from the his body shop were being picked up.

Nowling, who is trying to sell the dealership, said the soil was probably contaminated by oil that was washed away by rainwater. He said it would be “ridiculous” to press criminal charges.

“There’s absolutely so many things more important,” he said. “I had a situation I wasn’t aware of. I immediately got it taken care of.”