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Home My WebLink About9/19/2017 Item 15, Flickinger (4) Christian, Kevin From:Sarah Flickinger <sarah@flickimc.com> Sent:Tuesday, September To:E-mail Council Website Subject:Personal Comments_Flickinger 3_Avila Ranch Agenda Item Attachments:AR FEIR Council Personal Comments 3 Flickinger.pdf; LA Times Article.pdf Good morning, Attached, please find the third in a series of personal comments I will be providing on the Avila Ranch Development being considered at tonight’s City Council meeting as well as an attached article referenced in the comments. Sincerely, Sarah Flickinger 1 Sarah Flickinger 79 Del Oro Court San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 805.215.2561 September 19, 2017 To City of San Luis Obispo Councilmembers: This letter specifically concerns potential contamination of the Avila Ranch development site. I am concerned that our City is contemplating building workforce and affordable housing on a contaminated site, which may put the health of future residents directly at risk. Please consider the following excerpt from the FEIR, Section 3.6: The 1926 Unocal Fire and Potential for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons The largest historical hazardous materials release in the Project vicinity occurred during the 1926 Unocal Tank Farm fire. After a lightning strike hit the facility, it caused a massive fire resulting in the burning and release of an estimated 6 million barrels of oil (Applied EarthWorks, Inc. 2015). Hot crude oil was estimated to have flowed over the northern part of the Project site. According to the PSA, the majority of residue from the spill was removed by the family owner/operators and disposed offsite soon after the spill; however, during PSA sampling, total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) remnant from the 1926 fire was recovered in soils in the northeastern portion of the Project site near its boundary with the Chevron Tank Farm property. Relatively shortly after the release, historical aerials indicate the Project site remained in active agricultural use by the Avila family from 1939 to 2006. Since the spill, numerous studies have been conducted on the Chevron Tank Farm property and results conclude that contamination appears to remain contained on the Chevron Tank Farm property (Grisanti & Associates 2011). Testing for the PSA indicated that groundwater and soil samples showed relatively minor amounts of heavy petroleum hydrocarbons still exist in the northeast corner of the Project site, directly south of the common border of the Chevron Tank Farm property. The levels of which TPH are detected are in smaller concentrations the farther the distance to the Chevron Tank Farm property. Collected samples registered TPH as high as 220 parts per million (ppm) and low as 41 ppm. The PSA indicated the hydrocarbon presence does not pose any significant health or environmental concerns (Grisanti & Associates 2011). These tests were performed during a period of extended drought and prior to disruption of soil on the Chevron site that is currently being remediated. These contaminants were found in decreasing concentration along a creek corridor coming directly from the Chevron property. Considering significant rains as well as steam injection and disruption of contaminated soil on the adjacent property, it is likely that these concentrations would be higher and further reaching if this sampling were to be repeated today. I have attached a link to an article, Homes at Razed Tank Farm Also Being Leveled, from the LA Times dated July 27, 2003, detailing a similar situation in Orcutt, California, where a neighborhood was torn down when contaminated soils were discovered in a yard, then later linked to health concerns of residents. The article references other developments impacted by historic contamination on the central coast, some of which have had detrimental effects on the health of former residents. This location should be retested prior to the issuance of any grading permits and any contamination should be fully remediated prior to its grading or development to avoid potential risks to future residents. It may also prevent a similar situation of having to tear down the neighborhood due to contamination in the future. Please consider the discussions within the Chevron Tank Farm environmental documents that led to holding off on that property’s development until remediation was complete. I would hate for the City to go to all the trouble of making this development happen, only to find out it is harming the residents who bought into it. Residents’ safety and well-being should be a primary concern for any municipal body. Sincerely, Sarah Flickinger Article referenced: http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jul/27/local/me-unocal27 Email Share Tweet Homes at Razed Tank Farm Also Being Leveled Unocal is cleaning up Central Coast land where oil collected in decades past. July 27, 2003 |Sally Ann Connell | Special to The Times ORCUTT, Calif. — It was on a small bluff here in the Santa Maria River Valley that this area's future as a booming and affordable alternative for homebuyers on the Central Coast ran smack into its rough and tumble oil wildcatting past. A man working in his yard 13 years ago in the neighborhood southwest of Solomon and Blosser roads noticed a shiny layer of oil in the water. That discovery led to the realization that this new neighborhood, a high-end collection of one-acre and half-acre lots with homes of 3,000-plus square feet, had been built on the site of an old Union Oil Co. tank farm torn down in 1952. Today, years after purchasing that lot and 23 surrounding properties, Unocal is tearing down the homes and digging out the dirt -- as much as 20 feet down in some areas -- and replacing it with fresh fill. Eventual plans call for the company to sell the lots with disclosures about the cleanup of its past tank farm, disclosures missing when the area was developed in the late 1980s. Beverly and Edgar Strait were the last of the homeowners to settle with Unocal in 1994. They acknowledge now, as they sit in the large home they purchased just two blocks away with their $450,000 settlement, that they were never too worried about the tar-like crude they used to find while digging in their garden. "There was no health concern for us," Beverly Strait said. "What hurt me the most was that was our dream home. We had built it and then we had to sell it to see it just get torn down." As tank farms go, the one at Solomon and Blosser was tiny, with only six tanks. Unocal Corp. purchased it from Standard Oil Co. in the 1920s. Company officials don't have a clear explanation for what happened to the site between the tearing down of the tank farm in 1952 and the sale of the land to a developer in 1982. But all parties agree that the oil, particularly that which had collected under the tanks, was not removed. "I don't think we were counter to any of the regulations at that time," said Bill Almas, Unocal's spokesman for various cleanup projects across the Central Coast. "What we are doing now at Solomon-Blosser is entirely voluntary. We're not under any government orders." The Solomon-Blosser project is the largest of the cleanup efforts started by Unocal across the Santa Maria River Valley, a region once rich in oil with 82,000 people in the city of Santa Maria and more than 20,000 in unincorporated Orcutt. The area's population is nearly double what it was in 1980, with new red-tile-roof housing encroaching on farmland mainly because of its prime location: one hour north of Santa Barbara, 30 minutes south of San Luis Obispo and cheaper than both. But new homeowners know virtually nothing about the days when Union Oil dominated a region where other oil giants such as Phillips Petroleum and Standard Oil also sucked thick Santa Maria crude oil from the ground. The town of Orcutt was named in 1904 for William Warren Orcutt, a legendary Union Oil geologist who mapped out of some of the biggest oil finds in the state. The town also was home to "Old Maud," a famous well that produced 100 million barrels of oil in its first 100 days of operation. Advertisement FROM THE ARCHIVES Lakewood to Study Tank Farm Acreage for Seniors Housing March 5, 1987 Union Oil's Tank Farm May Remain, Judge Rules February 22, 1987 MORE STORIES ABOUT Houses Unocal Corp Santa Maria (ca) Hazardous Materials YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home →Collections →Houses The State Recommend 0 Email Share Tweet Unocal is taking a more aggressive stance in Orcutt because it has lost public relations battles in the past in the Central Coast over other areas. A prime example is Avila Beach, a popular but tiny beach town in southern San Luis Obispo County. There was a time in the 1920s when Avila Beach was the largest oil port in the world, but postwar tourists who flocked there for the funky shops, wide sandy beach and popular pier knew little of that history. When a massive oil leak was detected under the town, Unocal was ordered to pay $16 million in government fines. The company spent what experts believe was more than an additional $100 million to buy up the waterfront businesses, tear them down and reconstruct the area. The project started in 1999, and such businesses as the popular Sea Barn swimsuit store returned last year. Another mammoth Central Coast project for Unocal involves the cleanup of 9 million gallons of a chemical diluent that has spilled under the old oil field at Guadalupe Dunes, an environmentally sensitive area 12 miles west of Santa Maria at the mouth of the river. Unocal has a policy against discussing the costs of its cleanup efforts. Solomon-Blosser is only one Santa Maria River Valley project, and the company has other small projects in residential and soon-to-be residential areas. "It's certainly more desirable to clean up these situations before there has been development in the area," said Almas, the Unocal spokesman. "We like to think we have learned from Avila." Three hundred former oil sump sites are being monitored by the company, most in the outlying agricultural areas that soon may be overrun by housing. And at four locations around Santa Maria, where there once were sumps and oil wells, individual homes have been purchased and torn down and the earth has been dug out. 1 | 2 | Next Recommend 0 From the Web by TaboolaSponsored Links This $30 Device Keeps Spiders Out Of Your House UltrasonicPestReject.com Quicken Loans Alleviates The Burden Of Refinancing To A 15-Year Fixed QuickenLoans, NMLS #3030 How "the Best Sweatshirt Ever" is Made in the USA American Giant Celebrity Street Style: Go-To Loafers from This Cult-Favorite Vogue | Everlane 7 Outrageous Credit Cards For Those With Excellent Credit NextAdvisor MORE: Seizure Led to FloJo's Death His 104 scores make his case Restaurant review: South Beverly Grill Brutal Murder by Teen-Age Girls Adds to Britons' Shock Comaneci Confirms Suicide Attempt, Magazine Says Copyright 2017 Los Angeles Times Terms of Service|Privacy Policy|Index by Date|Index by Keyword Instacart Expands Grocery Delivery In LA The Press-Enterprise for Instacart In LA #1 CPAP Cleaner Now on Sale Easy Breathe Big Change at Dollar Shave Club: Our Best Razor for $1 Dollar Shave Club