Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit Wednesday against gas giants ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 for alleged environmental violations.
The complaint claims that the companies, which operate 76 gas stations, failed to properly inspect and maintain underground gasoline storage tanks at more than 560 gas stations throughout the state.
These include the station at 15803 East 14th Street in San Leandro.
The lawsuit lists a number of allegations, from tampering with and disabling leak detection devices to failing to conduct monthly inspections and improperly disposing hazardous waste and materials.
The investigation found that the violations began in November 2006.
Gas stations in 34 counties across the state were among those listed for violations.
Among the East Bay 76 gas stations listed for violations are those located at:
- 35550 Fremont Blvd. in Fremont
- 36979 Fremont Blvd. in Fremont
- 31300 Alvarado-Niles Rd. in Union City
- 3255 McCartney Rd. in Alameda
- 1716 Webster St. in Alameda
- 6401 Dublin Blvd. in Dublin
“The state’s hazardous waste laws help protect our residents from contaminated groundwater,” Attorney General Harris said in a press release. “This lawsuit safeguards public health by ensuring proper maintenance of the tanks that store fuel beneath many California communities.”
Learn more about the lawsuit and read the entire complaint here.
Going back 30 and 40 years ago, lots of tanks leaked with little pollution of the ground water because natural bacteria ate up most of the leakage over time. That ALL changed after the state forced the change of all the tanks and then mandated MTBE be put in the gasoline. That, not the original leakage, accounted for the worst ground water contamination the state has ever seen and the results of which are still with us. And anyone who watched the process figured out that the oil majors, were all for pushing the installation of new tanks because they knew it would force most of the independent stations out of business. Leaving us with the grossly non-competive gasoline market we now see in California. You want ground water contamination.... Go talk to the people of Santa Monica where the forced use of "clean" MTBE has destroyed their ground water for generations to come. All thanks to the idiots running the California agencies operating under the guise of cleaning up our environment. MTBE and ethanol requirements, 2 of the most foolish and destructive programs ever devised. Those agencies, along with the California Air Resources Board, doing little to improve our environment, yet costing us billions.
Tell us the last time anyone in San Leandro ever had gasoline in their drinking water. Or you might check out the history of past debacles in California related to gasoline. Look up MTBE forced on us.... and now ethanol....two monumental debacles. You probably supported the forced use of both "clean additives" at the time of introduction. After all, they had "green" attached to the sales brochure.
Unfortunately hydrocarbon contamination continues to persist in our groundwater ("the San Leandro Plume", aka "DWA Plume"). That's one of the reasons we are urged not to drink our well water here. I'm not too happy when businesses contaminate our groundwater. It's not their property. They know the rules.
Have you looked into the source and type of that contamination in the "DWA Plume"? I don't think you'll find that leaky gas station tanks were the source. Here is what the report says about that plume. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All VOCs detected were below the residential U.S. EPA Region 9 Preliminary Remediation Goals (PRGs). TPH diesel, TPH motor oil and TPH mineral spirit concentrations detected in soil were below the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (SFRWQCB) February 2005 environmental screening levels (ESL) of 100 mg/kg, 500 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg respectively. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Additionally, just how many San Leandro residents would ever be using wells for their drinking water, even if it was pristine? There needs to be some sense of perspective here. Too often any time anyone mentions "contamination" or "radiation"... knee-jerk green types include it all together whether 1 part per million or 1 part per trillion. They fail to grasp the difference between million and trillion.
http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/regulators/deliverable_documents/6079633414/nfa%20report.pdf
But people tired of you,you are everywhere,in every Bay Area newspaper.You want to be the bride at every wedding, the corpse at every funeral, and the baby at every christening Your Attorney General should start from murders of young girls in East Oakland . MTBE program launched by your progressive friends
I suppose, but for the official designation of it being contaminated, you'd be using it for your drinking/cooking water, instead of being hooked up to EastBayMUD. If so, I say that puts you in with about 1 person in 1000 in San Leandro. BTW, were you upset when you found out that the forced use of MTBE was brought to light? The chemical that BY FAR, has brought us multiple times more "gas station" related contamination, than all the prior leakage in the history of California. The chemical forced on the public by those in charge of cleaning up our state. Talk to the people of Santa Monica. How was their ground water in all the decades before the MTBE mandate, and how is it since the environmentally forced use of that chemical. Just saying you don't want to be a knee jerk supporter of everything that is given the name "green" by these guardians of our enviroment. Many of the people on these boards that hand down the regulations are scientific illerterates......and sometimes the reports they rely on are writting by scientific idiots and even fakes (fakes as seen in the phoney credentials found in the California Air Resources Board staff) Google -- carb fake degree