NORWALK : No Health Risks Seen From Fuel Valve Leak

A faulty valve is being blamed for a fuel leak that released an unknown quantity of gasoline into the soil, possibly under several homes, near the Defense Department fuel depot in Norwalk, city officials said.

The leak, which was discovered last Thursday and repaired by Sunday, has not contaminated any drinking water nor posed other health risks, said Daniel E. Keen, deputy city manager.

The source of the leak is a fuel line owned by Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline Partners, a Los Angeles-based company that ships fuel through underground pipelines from refineries in Wilmington to destinations as far away as Phoenix.

Tom Lambert, a spokesman for the company, said the leak was so slow that it did not trigger an alarm system connected to sensors that monitor pressure in the pipeline. The line carried 112 million barrels of fuel last year, he said.

The underground valve that failed is outside the eastern boundary of the Defense Department’s 50-acre jet fuel storage facility at Norwalk Boulevard and Excelsior Drive. Santa Fe Pacific leases a pump station at the facility.

The leak was detected by Defense Department consultants examining ground water samples from a test well 40 yards away, inside the fence of the so-called tank farm. The test well is one of many installed at the facility in recent years to monitor the migration of larger, previous spills from Defense Department tanks, Keen said.

The consultants found a five-foot layer of gasoline 30 feet below ground level, Keen said. Drinking water is not likely to be threatened, he said, because it is drawn from depths greater than 400 feet.

Analysis of the water sample showed that it was contaminated by gasoline rather than jet fuel stored in Defense Department tanks, Keen said. A sample taken from the same well six months ago was not contaminated, he said.

The leak occurred near Holifield Park, Keen said, and fuel may have seeped into soil under as many as 10 nearby homes. Residents of the homes will be notified by Santa Fe Pacific, Keen said, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board will monitor the cleanup.