SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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State of California M e m o r a n d u m To Donna Schimeck Date July 16 , 1990 Division of Clean Water Programs Dorothy Jone Staff Counsel OFFICE OF THE CHIEF COUNSEL From STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD Subject: UST COST RECOVERY: RESPONSIBLE PARTY; SITE NO. 1512 l " 'd P 1 . Is the person who holds a first deed of trust or. the above- listed site considered a responsi,bl''e party under the pilot program for purposes of recovory of,. state--funded cleanup and oversight costs arising from contarriinat',ion of a leaking underground storage tank containing petroleum? In general, a person holding a security interest in property contaminated by a leaking underground storage tank is not responsible for the government's costs 'to clean up that site . There axe, however, exceptions to this ,rule and I do not have enough information conoerning the specific instance in question to make a determination in this matter ' As I understand the situation which elicited your question, San Joaquin County (County) has named a responsible party for the cleanup costs at the above site. The attorney for the named party has informed the County that the ,l�named party does not own the contaminated site and did not own or operate the site at the time that any releases occurred. The named party sold the property in question in 1981 and took a first deed of trust on the site to secure a promissory nate from the buyer in the amount of $120, 000 . The property is currently the subject of foreclosure proceedings with a trustee",s deed to the property being held by a local savings institution. ;F What. savings ' institution has apparently decided that th9y will not proceed on ' the property and intends to seek rescission of the foreclosure based on concealment, mutual mistake of fact, and fraud. In the meantime, the named party has indicated an interest in undertaking a site assessment on the site but does not wish to agree to be responsible for potential unknown cleanup costs. E i�