Navy Faces Suit Over Fuel Tanks

Five underground fuel tanks at the closed El Toro Marine Corps Air Station must be closed, upgraded or removed, county officials said Monday, or the Navy could face legal action.

In a letter signed by Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew I. Kaplan, county officials say the military never received the proper permits to operate the tanks, never upgraded them as required by law and now has failed to submit adequate closure plans, including information on whether the tanks have leaked jet fuel and, if so, how much.

“The Orange County Health Care Agency referred to our office numerous apparent violations of California laws and regulations,” says the letter, dated Aug. 17 and sent to Dean Gould, the Navy’s environmental coordinator overseeing closure of the El Toro base. “These violations arise out of . . . failure to properly close, upgrade or remove five underground storage tanks in the area commonly referred to as Tank Farm 555.”

Without a “prompt and satisfactory settlement” of the matter, the district attorney’s letter says, “it is our intention to file a civil environmental enforcement lawsuit” against the Navy in Orange County Superior Court.

Reached at his office Monday, Kaplan said he had yet to receive a response. “All I can do now,” he said, “is wait and see what happens.”

Gould was out of town and could not be reached for comment. A call to his assistant was not returned.

According to a consultant’s report dated July 27, the five tanks, built in 1953, may have contributed to pollution in their vicinity.

“Available data,” the report says, “seems to indicate that leaky piping has contributed to hydrocarbon contamination in the soil and possibly ground water at and around” the tanks, each with a capacity of 567,000 gallons of jet fuel.

An earlier plan by the Navy to close the tanks by filling them with a mixture of sand and slurry was rejected as inadequate, Kaplan said. In last week’s letter, he proposed an Aug. 28 meeting between his staff and the military for a settlement conference.

“If we do not hear from you,” the letter concludes, “we will assume you do not wish to discuss settlement, and we will proceed with formal legal action.”