Orange County Health Care Agency and Seal Beach officials began reviewing the Bridgeport neighborhood ARCO contamination.
In attendance were (from the Orange County Health Care Agency) Geologist and current project manager Osman Taban; program manager Larry Honeybourne; senior engineering geologist Anthony Martinez; Denise Higgins; and director Richard Sanchez and Seal Beach City Manager David Carmany, Norm Dupont from the City Attorney's office, city engineer Michael Ho, and Director of Public Works Vince Mastrosimone.
Taban has been managing this case through that program since 2008.
There are over 2,000 gas station contamination cases in Orange County alone, according to Carmany.
"This is an active off-site plume case that was opened in 1986 and is unusual because of the potential intrusion of hydrocarbon vapors into the homes," the city manager added.
One monitoring well operated by ARCO exhibited signs that the plume of gasoline contaminants is moving off-site, Carmany reported.
"Based upon this data, the Health Care Agency required ARCO to undertake further work, which led to the discovery of significant levels of hydrocarbons contaminants in the streets adjacent to some residences," the city manager said.
"The potential human health risk posed by the possible migration of soil vapors into the indoor air of homes has triggered several immediate responses," Carmany added.
Of concern is the possible link of benzene, a known carcinogen, to a particular type of leukemia, Carmany said.
H & P Mobile Geochemistry Inc. is the subcontractor doing the sampling. Vapor extraction system wells are being installed by ARCO.
The Vapor Intrusion Screening Risk Assessment (SRA) will be submitted to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment for review.
The subsequent reports will be much more technical and should include an analysis of indoor air samples.
State regulations require cost-effective remedial actions.
The city manager recommends hiring an environmental consultant firm as soon as possible to review the work of the ARCO consultants.
Joe Segura, a mild-mannered reporter for a major metropolitan newspaper, has covered Gotham City, er Long Beach, for 34 years. During his very, very long -- endless -- tenure, he's covered almost every beat, and he was the main writer for BeachWeek, which focused on life and lifestyles of the shoreline communities from downtown Long Beach to the Huntington Beach pier.
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