The forgettable hulk: old PG&E plant rubs neighbors the wrong way
| Saturday, Oct 08 2011 02:36 PM
Last Updated Monday, Oct 10 2011 08:37 PM
MORE TROUBLE UNDER THE SOIL
In addition to the blight of an unused above-ground plant at Coffee and Rosedale, there's the separate issue of an underground toxic chemical plume widely believed to have migrated to the PG&E site from the former Sunland Refinery.
The plume includes MTBE, a suspected carcinogen used as a fuel additive in gasoline; and benzene, which among other things is used as a constituent in motor fuels.
The oil refinery just west of the plant at Coffee Road and the Santa Fe Railroad closed in 1995 after a gas explosion killed a passing motorist.
The following year, owner World Oil installed vacuum-like vapor extraction wells that suck evaporated gasoline ingredients from the soil. It also put in an air sparging system that injects air into groundwater, making contaminates easier to remove.
"World Oil has been working for many years on remediation efforts on site, and as recently as May of this year, the state water board that has been overseeing that effort commended our progress," said spokesman Steve Sugarman. "We're going to continue to do that work and to monitor the groundwater there, as required by the water board."
One of the big hurdles to redeveloping the PG&E site is that some fear disturbing the ground there will further destabilize a plume that already is on the move.
The underground plume has migrated about a half mile from the old Sunland site to PG&E's property and beyond, said Lonnie Wass, supervising engineer with the State Water Resources Control Board. It's moving northwest, but "it doesn't appear to be threatening groundwater at this time," he said.
Ironically, the drought that until last year was the bane of Kern County's critical agriculture industry is partly what has kept the area's drinking water safe from harm. The aquifer fell rapidly as water stored there was tapped and not replaced.
The contaminants "seem to be contained in the upper soil or the top groundwater," said Tim Treloar, district manager for the California Water Service Co. "We usually go down 350 to 500 feet to draw our water, so we're well below that."
But last year, Kern County had a close to normal rain year. At some point, the aquifer will rise again. The question is, will the PG&E plant and the land around it be mitigated before that happens?
PG&E gives World Oil access to its property to test wells and otherwise monitor the movement of the plume. According to a semi-annual report filed with the state last year, the company also dug new, deeper wells on its own initiative after the water table dropped below the depth of its existing wells.
Kern County Supervisor Mike Maggard isn't mollified.
"Every time it rains, that water trickles down to the plume and pushes it down," he said. "If that plume hits our water table, that has very, very significant consequences. They need to excavate and get rid of it, or at least put a cap on it that's impermeable."
That level of cleanup likely would fall to World Oil, not PG&E.
-- Courtenay Edelhart
Images
The old PG&E power plant on Coffee Road has been inoperative for years.
Talk about a neighborhood nuisance.
PG&E's crumbling, long-abandoned plant at Coffee Road and Rosedale Highway still looms over its neighbors, which include popular big box stores as well as homes in the busy northwest.
"It would be nice to get it cleaned up," said northwest resident Leslie Escerbo, 32, as she loaded groceries into her car in the parking lot of a Walmart across the street. "Nobody likes an eyesore."
It's been 26 years since the hulking Kern Power Plant shut down. The complex once was an important part of the local power grid. Water was heated with natural gas or fuel oil to produce high-pressure steam, which was used to spin turbines to generate electricity.
The plant began commercial operation in 1948, closed in 1985 and was declared inoperable in 1995 after PG&E determined the cost of bringing the aging facility up to contemporary standards was prohibitive.
Today, only PG&E's power distribution substation on 30 adjacent acres remains in use. The rest of the site is shuttered.
The vacant properties are a persistent eyesore in an area that otherwise is thriving. The popular Northwest Promenade shopping center went up immediately to the north in 2001, drawing consumers from the many residential neighborhoods that have sprouted in the area over the years. What once was an industrial corridor on the fringe of the city is now a busy hub of homes and retailers.
PG&E has tried hard to unload the thing. It had a purchase agreement with Los Angeles-based World Oil Corp. for a while, but the energy and real estate company pulled out of a deal to buy and redevelop the site last month after determining it would be too expensive to clean up environmental contamination there. Prior to World Oil, which owns the now-closed Sunland Refinery nearby at 2152 Coffee Road, there were talks with North American Power Group, a Colorado company that planned to reopen the plant and generate power using bio-diesel fuel.
City leaders beat back that deal in 2003, arguing before the California Public Utilities Commission that industrial use was no longer appropriate, given the rise of homes and stores in the vicinity.
Now, PG&E is back to square one. and nearby residents aren't the only ones losing patience.
On Sept. 6, county Supervisor Mike Maggard sent PG&E President Chris Johns a letter calling on the San Francisco-based utility giant to remedy the situation once and for all.
He cited "the negative aesthetics, and the health and safety issues associated with this site." Then he added: "This site has been a hindrance to economic development and job creation in a region where unemployment is higher than the state and national averages."
Maggard hadn't heard back but planned to keep the pressure on.
"I think they have a responsibility to our community to mitigate everything above ground and below ground and to determine to our satisfaction that there is no threat to our water supply," Maggard said.
The safety issues include worries about contamination.
Shopper Adrienne Gigourtakis said it was a big concern.
"Definitely, I mean, it's right in the middle of town, right where we live," said Gigourtakis, 46, who also lives in the northwest.
PG&E insists it has not forsaken Bakersfield, pointing to its recent effort to make cosmetic improvements to the complex. Last month, the company started demolishing cooling towers, storage buildings and other smaller structures around the main plant. About a dozen dilapidated buildings have come down in recent weeks, and that work continues.
"We're definitely committed to cleaning up the site, and we recognize that we have a lot of work to do," said PG&E spokesman Denny Boyles. "I understand that neighbors would be frustrated because it seems like there has been slow progress, but we're addressing it."
Part of the problem with the clean-up is that not all of the contamination at the site is PG&E's responsibility.
The utility took defiled soil and incinerator waste to a hazardous waste dump and other appropriate disposal sites in 2002.
It hasn't removed petroleum hydrocarbons originally used to lubricate equipment, nor hexavalent chromium, the suspected carcinogen highlighted in the film "Erin Brockovich." The chemical was used to prevent bacterial growth in cooling water.
Soil and water well testing to date have not shown levels of either to exceed government safety standards, but the company is watching closely, Boyles said.
"Part of the advantage of removing the above ground structures is it gives us a chance to take a look and see what's underneath," he said.
There doesn't appear to be help coming from the cash-strapped state and federal governments, which use a sort of triage system to prioritize which projects get public funding.
"The department only gets involved if there's a release of chemicals or if there's some ongoing action that is a threat to public health," said Jeanne Garcia, spokeswoman for the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
The state did lend a hand with the cleanup of a PG&E facility in the Bay Area. That one closed in 2006, and was gone by 2009.
Boyles said the timeline for that project can't be compared to the Kern Power Plant because different issues were involved.
For one thing, for at least a decade it wasn't clear if the plant in Bakersfield would be razed or updated.
Once PG&E decided the cost of upgrading the plant wasn't reasonable, the utility pursued a strategy of selling it to another industrial user, but that route met political opposition.
That's when the plant went on the market for non-industrial use. During the period when PG&E thought it had a buyer, it held off on expensive improvements because it thought the buyer would take care of them.
After the purchase agreement dissolved, PG&E immediately started cleaning up the site, Boyles said.
The corner looks a lot better now that the smaller outbuildings are gone, he said, and while there are no immediate plans to demolish the main steam power plant, that may happen in the future.
"We're going to take it step by step," Boyles said.
Northwest resident Gigourtakis wishes the company would step a little faster.
"It's not like PG&E doesn't have the money to tear it down and clean it up," she said. "They certainly get plenty from me every month."
