Good News on Arco Front

It was good news indeed earlier this month when oil giant Arco agreed to spend millions of dollars to clean up contamination beneath 143 gas stations in Orange County, a move that ends a costly and time-consuming legal battle.

The agreement that ended a legal battle initiated by the district attorney involves underground plumes of MTBE, a gasoline additive that may cause cancer. Though MTBE has yet to seriously imperil the county’s water supply, scientists caution that it’s only a matter of time. Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas should be applauded for pushing Arco to agree to a proactive solution. The negotiated solution also sets a standard by which other oil companies operating in the county should be judged.

On one level, the agreement marks a sad but necessary chapter in this country’s push to remedy environmental insults that threaten the health of its residents. MTBE ironically has been added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner and reduce air pollution. But when the chemical leaks from underground gasoline storage tanks, it quickly spreads through soil and water, creating a cancer threat to animals and, most likely, humans. California is in the process of phasing out the dangerous chemical.

But that plan to stop using MTBE doesn’t deal with the existing problem created as the additive silently leaked from underground storage tanks. Arco, which already has spent $16 million to clean up gas stations in the county, has a clear legal obligation under state and federal law to clean up underground pollution. So do Shell Oil and other oil companies that sell gasoline in the county -- and the county is right to pursue those companies with lawsuits akin to the one lodged against Arco.

Critics of the settlement contend that Arco simply agreed to do what’s required by federal and state environmental law. That assessment might be valid. But this country traditionally has waited too long to treat environmental insults.

Subsequent legal wrangling can delay cleanup efforts for years and create a funding shortage -- witness the lengthy list of environmental disasters on the federal government’s Superfund list.

Arco has agreed to spend $3 million to study the level of contamination at its gas stations and allow an independent environmental consultant to determine the exact amount of pollution and the level of treatment needed to clean it up. Given the real-world problems of finding funds to clean up the environment, the settlement is better than waiting until the damage has been done and then arguing over who will fund the cleanup.