NORWALK : Rep. Torres Seeks to Close Jet Fuel Depot

Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente) has asked Defense Secretary William J. Perry to close a jet fuel storage depot in Norwalk, saying it poses a toxic threat to nearby homes.

Homes across the street from the tank farm would be in danger if the facility on the corner of Norwalk Boulevard and Excelsior Drive catches fire, explodes or releases poisonous fumes, Torres said in a letter to Perry.

Torres also claims that fuel from the depot has tainted soil and ground water below the site and is decreasing nearby property values.

A 1991 study by the Defense Department revealed that the storage yard’s soil and ground water were contaminated with the cancer-causing agent benzene and another solvent at depths of 40 feet. The contamination was not viewed as a threat to the city’s drinking water supply, which is drawn from between 240 feet to 1,250 feet down.

The facility is capable of storing 36 million gallons of jet fuel. Currently, 25 million gallons are stored there, said Defense Department officials. The facility provides fuel for military bases in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

Referring to it as “a costly relic,” Torres said the 50-acre storage facility is an inefficient use of funds in the current era of defense cutbacks. The military pays a private contractor $1.2 million annually to operate the site, said Lynford Morton, a Defense Department spokesman. The facility employs 27 workers, Morton said.

Torres claims the Defense Department would save money by storing the fuel in tanks at the defense fuel supply point in San Pedro or at individual military bases.

Morton said storing the fuel in San Pedro is not a reasonable alternative because the Norwalk site is connected to a pipeline critical to distributing the fuel to California and other states.

Torres wrote a similar letter in 1990 asking former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney to close the tank farm, said Roddy Young, the congressman’s press secretary.

The military began a cleanup of the storage depot’s soil in 1991, Morton said. The project should be completed by 2003, he said.