HUNTINGTON BEACH : Old Fuel Tanks Slow Street Work

Underground gasoline tanks, long forgotten relics of some of the earliest service stations in the country, have recently slowed construction crews doing street work and landscaping on Main Street downtown.

Late in May, workers ran across a 500-gallon fuel tank that had been sunk about eight feet under a sidewalk at Main Street and Olive Avenue 70 years ago or more, officials said.

There is another abandoned underground gasoline tank at Pacific Coast Highway and 6th Street that is undergoing soil tests for possible toxic contamination. And about a year ago, crews removed a 1920s-era, 250-gallon underground tank that had been filled with dried mud and abandoned at the site of an old country store and gas station, the site of a home on Juliet Avenue when discovered.

“These were probably among the earliest gas stations in the country,” said city fire protection specialist Jim Holman. “Anything before them, people got around on horses, and they probably bought bales of hay at the corner store.”

The most recently discovered underground tank was found by workers from the Artistic Landscape Co., who were doing trenching work for storm drains as part of a $1-million Main Street improvement program.

Workers poked around in the tank with a rod and called the city Fire Department and the county hazardous waste management section when they smelled fuel.

The rusty tank, containing about 40 or 50 gallons of very old fuel for Model T Fords and other vehicles of the era, was rinsed and vacuumed to remove the potential for explosions and then plucked from the ground and turned into scrap metal.

Surrounding soil was found to be contaminated but not hazardous, officials said. About 260 tons of soil were hauled away to a dump, and fresh dirt was brought in.

The cleanup work required permits from the County Environmental Health Agency, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Air Quality Management District.

Holman said the underground tank at the intersection of Main and Olive fed pumps that were operated manually.

Historic Resources Board Chairman Jerry Person said old photos indicate that the station was doing business before 1922. A sign painted on the side of the brick structure says “Gibbs Service Station--Union Gasoline--Speed & Power.”

It later became Harlow Service Station. Still later, former Mayor Ted Bartlett took it over for a number of years before retiring in 1979, Person said.

The removal of the old tank sent construction crews scurrying to complete Main Street work before Sunday’s deadline. They were working over the weekend to avoid late penalties, officials said.