Port Seeks Damages Over Fuel Leaks at Airport

Leaking aviation fuel at Lindbergh Field has created a 2-foot-deep blob of contaminated ground water that is making its way toward San Diego Bay, the San Diego Unified Port District says in a lawsuit filed against eight fuel service companies.

The leaking fuel tanks, responsible for saturating soil and tainting water, have prompted the county to order the Port District to clean up the site on the south side of the airport.

The pollution lies under two-thirds of the airport’s sole fuel storage and dispensing facility.

The Port District, which oversees the airport, is seeking more than $1.6 million in cleanup and other costs from eight current and former airport fuel-service companies, but the port still is responsible for the cleanup.

“The Port District has been under increasing pressure recently to make sure people renting their lands are responsible for hazardous material and hazardous waste, and the regional (water) board and the county are holding the port responsible,” said Vicky Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the county’s Environmental Health Services.

Although there is no evidence that any of the tainted water has reached the bay, the blob is sloping toward it, regulatory officials said.

The tainted water ranges from several inches to nearly 3 feet in places and the hydrocarbons in the earth in some areas are as much as 75 times above the 1,000 parts-per-million threshold that determines whether a substance is hazardous.

It believed that the aviation fuel leaked from some of the 35 fuel tanks in use at the site over the years.