RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Board orders cleanup
Water regulators pushing owners to tend to site while Sen. Florez seeks action from attorney general
| Monday, Aug 27 2007 11:20 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Aug 27 2007 11:26 PM
Polluted groundwater beneath the Rosedale refinery has gotten the attention of state regulators who have let past toxic spills slide for decades.
BAKERSFIELD.COM HOT TOPICS:
Loading Stories
Advertisement
Photos:
Shell Oil ceased operations at its Bakersfield refinery on Sept. 30, 2004. The Rosedale Highway refinery, pictured in 2003, was the largest in Bakersfield.
Related Stories:
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a formal order late last week demanding the refinery's current and past owners clean up contaminated soil and groundwater at the site.
Meanwhile, state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who jumped on the issue after being alerted by a Californian story, wasn't taking any chances. He tried to get the state attorney general on the case.
Florez sent a letter Monday to Attorney General Jerry Brown asking him to take legal action against Shell, the oil company primarily responsible for cleaning up the contamination.
In the letter, Florez said the water board had taken too long to make Shell clean up the oil, gasoline, diesel, benzene and MTBE in the ground. He called the contamination a "serious health and safety concern."
And, he said, the water board "has a history of inaction and has demonstrated an unwillingness to require the necessary action in this instance."
The water board's recent cleanup order is the first formal action it has taken to address past contamination at the refinery going back to the mid-1980s. It includes 55 required actions over various lengths of time.
In June the board ordered current refinery owner Big West of California, a subsidiary of Flying J, to clean up more recent pollution.
Groundwater and soil beneath the Rosedale Highway refinery is saturated with toxic chemicals leaked or spilled on the property over the last 20 years. In one case, an estimated 4 million to 5 million gallons of partially refined fuel was leaked from an underground pipeline in 1987.
The resulting plume comes close to two public drinking supplies including a city well and the Kern River.
A recent investigation by The Californian found that instead of issuing formal enforcement orders, the water board has allowed the refinery's various owners to voluntarily clean up the messes. Some remediation has occurred but in the past two years, cleanup has nearly come to a halt -- with a lot left to do.
"That's the kind of action we've been waiting for," Tom Frantz, chairman of Association of Irritated Residents, a local environmental group, said of the new cleanup order. "A (formal) order is a pretty rare thing coming from the water board."
Loren Harlow, one of the board's assistant executive officers, said the attorney general could act "but I think our order will clearly address the cleanup and remediation of that site."
He said the order was not in response to The Californian's story of last week or Florez's pressure. It reflected a new, more forceful approach by the board in the last year, he said.
Gareth Lacy, Brown's press secretary, said it was too soon to comment on whether Brown will pursue a case against Shell.
"The next step is to start asking the water board questions," Lacy said. "That will happen as soon as possible."
Shell spokesman Stan Mays also said it's too early to comment.
"Shell remans committed to its environmental responsibility," Mays said, "and will mitigate issues for which it is responsible."
In the past, contamination beneath the refinery has migrated to under neighboring properties and contaminated some wells. Water board officials said cleanup operations by Shell and previous owners helped to contain the plume beneath the refinery. However, the recent cleanup order requests further studies to address off-site migration.
Big West bought the refinery from Shell in 2005. Under terms of the sale, Shell retained responsibility for past contamination at the facility. The facility was previously owned jointly by Texaco and Shell under the name Equilon, and solely by Texaco before that.
When Shell sold the facility in 2005, it shut down one of the most effective cleanup systems. The company said it had to build a new power source for the system. It was allowed to set its own deadlines for reactivation and has missed all three. Shell says that's due to factors outside its control.