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<br /> Willy Ng [EH1
<br /> From: Chris Panaitescu [panaitescu a@ThriftyOil.com]
<br /> Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 1:37 PM
<br /> To: Willy Ng [EH]
<br /> Cc: Jeff Suryakusuma; Nicholas Panaitescu
<br /> Subject., Best California Gas, Ltd. SS# 172, 7647 Pacific Ave. Stockton, CA 95207.
<br /> Dear Mr. Ng,
<br /> In response to your letter dated July 10, 2007 and following our phone conversation held on 07/18/07, 1 understand that
<br /> the SJCEHD will not extend the temporary closure of the USTs at the above referenced site beyond the first 12 months
<br /> already approved on August 31, 2006.
<br /> As I informed you during our conversation, Thrifty Oil Co./ Best California Gas, Ltd (Best) leased the subject gas station
<br /> to ConocoPhillips (COP)on 05/13/91. COP operated the facility until December 15, 2003 when COP assigned the Lease
<br /> Agreement to Circle K Stores Inc. who started to operate the site beginning December 17, 2003. The assignment of
<br /> operation to Circle K generated difficulties in communication between the landlord (Best), the tenant(COP) and the
<br /> operator(Circle K). The communication problems culminated with the unexpected way the operator ceased the operations
<br /> and vacated the facility prior the termination of the Lease, scheduled for June 19, 2006. Actually, after a tank integrity test
<br /> performed on May 22, 2006, on May 23, 2006 Circle K pumped out the tanks, leaving approximately 3 -6 inches of fuel on
<br /> each tank. The remaining fuel and the liquid resulted from rinsing the tanks were pumped out by Thrifty's contractors Cal-
<br /> Phase and Asbury Environmental, as part of the Temporary Closure procedure, on September 13, 2006.
<br /> Since it appears that an extension to the Temporary Closure is not available, and as I informed you by phone, we were
<br /> not able yet to finalize a Lease agreement with a new prospective tenant, please at least consider September 13, 2006 as
<br /> the beginning of the temporary closure, because this was the date when the tanks were completely emptied, cleaned and
<br /> degassed. According to your letter dated July 10, 2007, one year anniversary is considered August 30, 2007 (probably
<br /> based on the date of August 31, 2006 when our application for Temporary Closure was approved by you). Since we are
<br /> close to execute a new Lease agreement even 13— 14 days may help.
<br /> In the mean time I will download the application for permanent closure and I will submit the completed forms to you.
<br /> In case we will succeed in leasing the facility to a new tenant before to the end of the 12 month period, I do not think we
<br /> will have any problem by restarting the operation before 09/13!07 (assuming you agree with this anniversary date),
<br /> instead of completing the permanent closure by that date.
<br /> With respect to the Quarterly inspections required during the temporary closure, as you know, the last inspection was
<br /> performed on 05/01/07; therefore the next one, if required, should be scheduled on the beginning of August 2007. Please
<br /> let me know if based on the fact that the UST will be either permanent closed on the beginning of September(or end of
<br /> August)or the operation will be restarted, you still require a temporary closure inspection.
<br /> As I told you by phone, despite the gas station is not currently operated, one of our environmental technicians visits the
<br /> facility in a weekly basis for operation and maintenance of a Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) remediation system at the site,
<br /> and he was instructed to verify and make sure (weekly)that all temporary closure measures are in place.
<br /> If you want us to conduct a new Quarterly inspection, we would like to schedule it for Thursday August 2"'d 2007 when our
<br /> technician is at the site for O&M of the SVE remediation system. I would appreciate your response regarding the
<br /> inspection, because in case an inspection is required, and the LEL reading will be included in the check list, the technician
<br /> must rent an LEL meter for this purpose (like he did on May 2007).
<br /> Please also let me know if you agree that September 13, 2007 be considered the end of the 12 months of the approved
<br /> temporary closure.
<br /> Thank you,
<br /> Chris
<br /> Chris Panaitescu,General manager
<br /> Thrifty oil Co./Golden West Refining Co.
<br /> 13116 Imperial Hwy.
<br /> Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670
<br /> ph:(562)921-3581 x 390
<br /> fax:(562)921-7510
<br /> email:Panaitescn@Thrifty0il.eom
<br /> 7/23/2007
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