Saratoga News

Groundwater contamination cleanup ongoing at local sites

Private gasoline-storage tanks must be remedied

Noncompliance means fines

By Michelle Alaimo

Saratoga may have escaped the heavy development that has plagued other nearby Silicon Valley cities, but it has not been able to avoid one of the byproducts of heavy development--groundwater contamination. Statistics released by the Santa Clara Valley Water District show Saratoga has experienced groundwater or soil contamination. But the numbers also show that the city has lower contamination levels than the rest of Santa Clara County, and that contamination has not yet reached drinking-water supply wells.

Figures indicate that since the water district's Leaking Underground Storage Tank Oversight Program (LUSTOP) began in 1988, Saratoga has had 36 cases of leaking underground fuel-storage tank sites--23 of those cases are now closed, meaning the groundwater and soil contamination has been cleaned up to acceptable health and safety levels. Jim Crowley, unit supervisor for LUSTOP said, "The figures are a little better than the rest of the county."

On average, 60 percent of cases in Santa Clara County cities have been closed, Crowley said. Saratoga alone has closed 60 percent of its cases.

The main purpose of the LUSTOP program is to make sure leaking tanks "don't jeopardize public-health safety or water safety," Crowley said. However, LUSTOP focuses only on leaking fuel tanks.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board monitors the leaking of all other tanks, such as dry-cleaning solvent tanks. Since its program began in 1981, eight leaking solvent tank cases have been reported in Saratoga, according to Tom Geisler, an environmental specialist with the board.

The number is low compared to nearby communities such as Cupertino and San Jose, he said. San Jose has about 300 known contamination sites, while Cupertino has 16 solvent-leakage cases.

The contaminated sites are regulated by federal and state laws. Problem tanks are usually identified when the underground tank is removed. Geisler added that a tank is usually closed when it is no longer in use or is found to have leaked. Jim Blamey, the county's hazardous-material program manager, said that when a tank is to be removed, a permit is taken out with the county. A hazardous-material program representative takes soil samples from underneath the tank. If contamination is found, the case is turned over to the appropriate agency--either the RWQCB or LUSTOP. He added that many times, newer above-ground solvent tanks have simple easy-to-fix problems discovered during the county's annual inspection. Fines of up to $10,000 per day are assessed by the agencies to those who don't comply with cleanup regulations.

But when a site needs to be cleaned up, such as in the case of the former Chevron gas station at the corner of Saratoga-Los Gatos Road and Oak Street, the owners who used the tank are responsible for picking up the cleanup tab. Costs can run up to several hundreds of thousands of dollars, Crowley said, depending on the size of the cleanup.

And cleanup regulations do not just affect businesses.

Homeowners who put underground tanks on their property during the 1970s gas crisis are now feeling the pinch. According to Blamey, many gas companies gave away single-wall underground storage tanks to homeowners if they bought gasoline from their companies. A few homeowners eager to avoid long lines at the pumps jumped at the chance to store gas on-site at their own homes.

Now, property owners who installed the tanks have until Dec. 22 to upgrade, replace or close their underground single-wall tanks. Blamey said tank owners throughout the county are scrambling to remove tanks before the deadline in order to avoid possible fines of up to $5,000 per day for being out of compliance. Of the nine residences on Saratoga's leaking-fuel sites list, only one case is still open; the other sites have been cleaned and the cases closed. Blamey said there are seven facilities, some with multiple underground tanks, but that have permits with the county. While none of the permitted locations are residences, Blamey said he suspects more tanks could be in the city at homes and many are not discovered until a site undergoes construction or is up for sale.

But homeowners' wallets are not the only thing at risk in the scramble to clean up old leakage sites.

Contaminated groundwater can eventually reach drinking-water aquifers if the contamination is left untreated. According the water district, even small amounts of gasoline additives--such as MTBE, which makes fuel burn more cleanly--make water supply undrinkable.

Because of the danger to drinking water, responsible parties are required to submit up to four reports per year to LUSTOP on the status of the contamination's movement and what is being done to clean it up. Treatment alternatives range from pumping and treating the groundwater to air stripping the ground.

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