Source of Julian Water Contamination Still a Mystery

Almost a year has gone by since Scott Monroe, owner of Bailey’s Wood Pit Barbecue in Julian, was drilling for water and came up with gas instead.

Since then, the mountain community’s wells have been tested, and traces of benzene, a cancer-causing chemical, have been found in three of its nine wells. Officials believe the benzene, a component of gasoline, leaked from an underground fuel tank.

Although many residents say the contaminated wells have not hurt tourism and the local water is now safe to drink, the mystery of how the supply went bad remains unsolved. Monroe, meanwhile--a 12-year resident of the community--is stuck with a $6,500 well full of contaminated water.

“The town’s running out of water, and I’m really hot about this,” he said. “I have water in my well, but I can’t use it because it’s contaminated.”

Health and water officials say they still don’t know how long the water has been tainted or whether the leak is continuing. Harry Seifert, general manager of the Julian Community Services District, which distributes the water, estimates the contamination can be traced back at least three years.

Although Chevron U.S.A. installed a $42,000 carbon filter to purify the water soon after the contamination was discovered last fall, the company is uncertain how long residents may have been drinking bad water, Seifert said.

In the past year, Chevron--one of several oil companies that have operated near the site of the town’s underground fuel tanks--has spent more than $120,000 on Julian’s water problems. It has been conducting weekly tests to determine the extent of the leak, and it also imported 320,000 gallons of water into the district last September while the carbon filter was being installed--all free of charge.

Chevron has agreed to continue pouring money into the project, despite the fact that there has been no conclusion that the contamination came from one of its tanks, or even from a tank belonging to other Julian gas stations. Company officials emphasize that they have not been found responsible, but say there is always the possibility Chevron was involved.

Meanwhile, the company closed down its service station at the corner of Main Street and Washington last month. Chevron officials said the shutdown is not connected to the contamination, and that the station was closed simply because it was not a profit-maker. That leaves one gas station in town, although during the past 40 years there have been as many as five at once.

“It’s hard to tell where the stuff came from,” Seifert said, noting that all five stations were within a two-block area in town, which is just four blocks long and three blocks wide.

“Chevron stepped in when there was no proof of anyone’s responsibility,” he said. “They stepped to the front as far as taking care of the problem.”

Seifert speculated that the company may be motivated by memories of another leak during the late 1970s in which a Chevron tank briefly contaminated a town well.

“The (contamination) traces are old enough so that we can’t exactly trace it,” he said of the current problem. “There is no evidence that points to one specific source of contamination.”

Kim Wiseman, an environmental engineer with Chevron, said the company, which has operated a service station in the heart of Julian for more than a dozen years, took on the chore simply as a civic duty at a time when Julian was facing a crisis.

Wiseman said that, once the source of the leak is found, the company will “seek compensation for funds that have been spent thus far from the responsible party.”

Although Chevron continues to absorb the cost of the cleanup, residents say it’s been business as usual in Julian, a rustic community famous for its apples, apple pie and apple-buying tourists.

The town prides itself on remaining in a time warp of the early 1900s, a place where folks can get away from the smog and traffic of big-city life and enjoy green mountains and dirt trails.

But local officials worry that its reputation is becoming somewhat tarnished and that the town is being jokingly referred to as the “Julian Valdez”--a reference to the giant Exxon tanker responsible for the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

After a year of testing, water and health officials are still searching for the source of the leak and the best way to deal with the contamination. Seifert said the water district has hired an attorney to handle any litigation that might arise.

“Who knows how long the water’s been contaminated?” said Julian resident Joe Romano, a member of the water district board. “What matters is that millions of gallons of water were poisoned. It may take us 20 years to recover, if ever.”

Romano complained that Chevron is positioning itself as “the rescuers, not the perpetrators.”

Dan Avera, deputy director of San Diego County’s environmental health services department, said Julian’s problem is considered severe because the community depends totally on underground water. It is one of the few areas in the county that doesn’t import water.

However, Avera said the health hazards posed by the benzene are minimal.

“The amount of benzene is just over the acceptable levels, but just barely,” he said. No reports of health problems have been sent to the health department yet, he said.

Residents in Julian, as in the rest of the state, are facing a fourth year of drought, and they say they are more concerned about that shortage than about the contamination.

Monroe posted a sign outside his barbecue restaurant: “Due to the water shortage, we are serving all dinners on paper or plastic. Sorry for the inconvenience.” Other businesses in town are also taking measures to cut down on water use, including installing portable toilets.

Because Julian’s shortage is compounded by the contamination, water officials have placed a moratorium on water hookups and in the heart of the community.

The water district serves about 500 people within a 5-square-mile area, Seifert said. The district uses about 50,000 gallons a day, more on weekends because of tourists.

Seifert said district customers have cut consumption 30% in the first six months of this year.

Chevron installed the temporary filtration system a week after the tainted water was discovered, Wiseman said, “simply to get a drinking water supply system on line while investigations are going on.”

A more sophisticated and efficient machine, estimated to cost more than $100,000, is being designed and built by Chevron to replace the carbon filter, it is hoped within the next nine months, Seifert said.

“Our goal is for Julian to have a safe drinking water supply,” Wiseman said.

According to James Silver, owner of the lot where the Chevron station stood, a gas station has stood on the spot since 1914, when gasoline was pumped from wooden barrels. Before then, a saloon occupied the property. The prime lot is now bare of buildings, and Silver said he is unsure about the fate of the property.

When the benzene was first detected, Chevron delivered 4,500 gallons of bottled water to the community and trucked in 315,000 gallons from Palomar Mountain that was pumped into the district’s tanks. The company footed the $35,000 bill and distributed the water free, said Jane Fruin, a supervisor of environmental engineering at Chevron.

Before the filter was installed, residents were warned by health and water officials about the contamination and were advised to drink only bottled water, Seifert said.

“I’ve worked with gasoline all these years, I’ve drunk it, I’ve smelled the fumes, and it hasn’t killed me yet,” said Norm Cozens, owner of the six-pump Alliance Gasoline, now the lone station in town.